Silas  Deane 

A  Connecticut  Leader 
In  The  American  Revolution 


George  L.  Clark, 


SILAS   DEANE 

A  CONNECTICUT  LEADER  IN  THE 
AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 


BY 

GEORGE  L.  CLARK 

AUTHOR  OF  "NOTIONS  OF  A  YANKEE  PARSON 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW    YORK    AND     LONDON 

"Knickerbocker   press 
1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 

BY 

GEORGE  L.  CLARK 


Ube  Iftnicfcerbocfcer  press,  Hew  U?orft 


Co 

WETHERSFIELD 
HOME  OF  STERLING  FRIENDS 


271041 


PREFACE 

HPHE  reasons  for  a  book  on  Silas  Deane  are  in 
the  following  facts:  he  was  prominent  and 
influential  in  the  movements  leading  to  the  Revolu 
tion;  he  was  on  important  committees  in  the  First 
and  Second  Continental  Congresses ;  he  was  our  first 
agent  to  France  for  the  Insurgents;  he  forwarded 
military  supplies,  indispensable  at  Saratoga;  he 
commissioned  Lafayette,  De  Kalb,  and  Steuben; 
he  served  as  Commissioner  with  Franklin  and 
Arthur  Lee,  with  whom  he  arranged  and  signed 
the  treaties  with  France;  unjustly  recalled,  he 
suffered  for  years  from  false  and  malicious  charges ; 
reduced  to  poverty  and  misery,  he  died  when  em 
barking  on  a  new  enterprise;  fifty  years  later, 
Congress  vindicated  his  memory  from  the  charge 
of  embezzlement;  his  life  was  woven  in  with 
critical  events;  his  career  was  checkered;  the 
mistake  of  his  life  was  serious,  the  sufferings 
extreme,  the  fate — a  dramatic  close  of  the  career 

of  one  of  the  most  efficient  of  the  men  of  the 

i 

Revolution. 


vi  Preface 

It  is  high  time  that  the  truth  were  told  about 
Deane,  in  the  interests  of  justice  to  a  man  so  mis 
understood  and  so  wronged:  because  of  the  light 
thrown  on  critical  years  in  which  he  was  associated 
with  Franklin,  Morris,  Jay,  and  others  of  their 
class;  because  of  unexpected  glimpses  of  shadows 
found  in  heroic  times;  because  the  study  enables 
us  to  see  more  clearly  the  pillars  on  which  our 
civil  freedom  rests,  and  the  struggles  and  perils 
of  those  trying  days. 

In  his  endeavor  to  discover  all  the  facts  bearing 
on  the  case,  to  give  all  that  seemed  necessary 
toward  forming  a  fair  judgment  of  Silas  Deane, 
and  to  present  a  clear  view  of  his  valuable  services 
in  behalf  of  his  country  in  a  crucial  age,  the  author 
has  been  indebted  to  the  librarians  of  the  Con 
necticut  Historical  Society,  the  Watkinson  Library, 
and  the  Connecticut  State  Library,  and  to  his 
friend  Edward  Porritt,  for  many  courtesies  and 
suggestions. 

The  authorities  consulted  are  the  Collections  of 
the  Connecticut  Historical  Society;  Collections  of 
the  New  York  Historical  Society;  Correspondence 
of  Samuel  B.  Webb;  Wharton's  Diplomatic  Cor 
respondence  of  the  American  Revolution;  Life  and 
Works  of  John  Adams;  Works  of  Jared  Sparks; 
Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut;  Durand's  New 


Preface  vii 

Material  on  the  American  Revolution;  J.  B.  Per 
kins's  France  in  the  American  Revolution;  Lives 
of  Franklin,  Morris,  and  Jay;  and  articles  in 
magazines. 


G.  L.  C. 


Wethersfield,  Connecticut. 
May  /,  ig  13. 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

CHAPTER   I 

Silas  Deane  a  Merchant  in  Wethersfield — Born  in  Groton  in 
1737 — Graduates  from  Yale  in  1758 — Practises  Law  in 
Wethersfield — Marries  Mehitabel  Webb  in  1763 — 
Later  Marries  Elizabeth  Saltonstall — Becomes  a  Pros 
perous  Merchant — How  the  People  Lived  in  a  Puritan 
Village 1-12 

CHAPTER  II 

Deane's  Activity  in  the  Political  Struggles  before  the 
Revolution — The  Stimulating  Atmosphere  of  Patriot 
ism— Jared  Ingersoll  Resigns  his  Commission — 
Wethersfield  Sends  Supplies  to  Boston — Deane  Sent 
to  Legislature  in  1772 — Secretary  of  Committee  of 
Correspondence  ....  I3~2° 

CHAPTER   III 

Deane,  Sherman,  and  Dyer  Represent  Connecticut  in  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1774 — Deane's  Opinion  of 
Sherman,  Washington,  and  Patrick  Henry — Deane 
and  Others  Organize  and  Finance  the  Ticonteroga 
Expedition — Formulates  Rules  for  Navy — Serves  orf 
Committees  with  Morris,  Washington,  Franklin,  and 
Jay — Discussions  in  Congress — Deeply  Interested  in 
Forming  a  Navy  .....  21-37 

ix 


Contents 


CHAPTER   IV 

Deane's  Mission  to  France — Colonists  Need  Firearms  and 
Ammunition — Committee  of  Correspondence  Send 
Deane  to  Paris — Burdened  with  the  Responsibility — 
Wethersfield  Merchant  in  Gay  French  Capital — Asks 
for  Supplies  for  Twenty-five  Thousand  Men — Well 
Supplied  with  Good  Advice — Obliged  to  Buy  without 
Money — Hindrances  from  British  .  .  .  38-51 

CHAPTER   V 

Deane,  Vergennes,  and  Beaumarchais — Romantic  Story  of 
Beaumarchais — Arthur  Lee's  Flowery  Talk  with  Beau 
marchais — Vergennes  a  Sterling  Friend  of  America — 
Ingenious  Plan  of  Beaumarchais — Deane  Arrives  in 
Paris  in  July — Supplies  are  Shipped  and  Tobacco 
Called  for  in  Return — Lee's  Falseness  Confuses  Con 
gress — Beautiful  Letters  are  Sent  to  France  but  Little 
Tobacco — Ultimate  Ruin  of  Beaumarchais  .  52-72 

CHAPTER   VI 

Deane  Forwards  Military  Supplies — The  French  Insist  on 
Sending  Officers  with  the  Artillery — Soldiers  of  For 
tune— De  Kalb's  Plan  to  Put  Broglie  in  Place  of 
Washington — Deane's  Anxieties  and  Perplexities — 
Commissions  Steuben — Eight  Ships  Sail  for  Ports 
mouth  with  Supplies  .....  73~9i 

CHAPTER  VII 

Franklin  and  Lee  Join  Deane  in  Paris — Fitness  of  Franklin 
for  the  Office  of  Commissioner — His  Fame  in  Paris — 


Contents  xi 

PAGES 

Early  History  of  Arthur  Lee — Lee's  Towering  Ambition 
— Duplicity — Deane's  Resolute  Plea — The  French 
Wary — News  of  Burgoyne's  Surrender  to  an  Army 
Equipped  from  French  Arsenals — Treaty  Signed  Feb.  6, 
1778— Death  of  Elizabeth  Deane  .  .  .  92-109 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Recall — Excitement  over  News  of  Saratoga — Congress 
Calls  Deane  Home  to  Report  on  the  State  of  Europe — 
Deane  Urges  Vergennes  to  Send  over  a  Fleet — Deane 
Crosses  the  Atlantic  in  the  Flagship  of  the  Fleet — Com 
parison  of  Deane  and  Lee — Jealousy  of  the  Latter — Lee 
Poisons  the  Minds  of  Leaders  in  America — Conspiracy 
against  Franklin — Deane  bears  Letters  from  Vergen 
nes,  Franklin,  and  Beaumarchais — Deane's  Success  in 
Paris  ........  110-132 

CHAPTER   IX 

The  Hostility  of  Congress — A  Frosty  Reception — Delay  in 
Calling  Deane  to  Report — Effects  of  Lee's  Lying  Letters 
— Gang  of  Conspirators — Carmichael  and  Izard  Work 
with  Lee — Months  of  Delay — Forty-two  Appeals — 
Congress  at  Low  Ebb — Deane's  Address  of  Dec.  5, 
1778 — Excitement  over  the  Drastic  Appeal — Thomas 
Paine  Takes  a  Hand— Morris  Defends  Deane— Bitter 
Debate — Franklin's  Opinion  of  Lee  .  .  133-159 

CHAPTER  X 

Deane's  Second  Mission  to  France  a  Failure — Morris  Sym 
pathizes — Deane's  Anxiety  as  he  Returns  to  Paris — 
Charges  against  Deane — Sympathy  of  Beaumarchais — 


xii  Contents 

PAGES 

Gathering  Gloom — Deane  Talks  too  Much — Poverty 
and  Worry — Fever  .....       160-181 

CHAPTER  XI 

Deane's  Republicanism  Weakens — "Paris  Papers" — Nine 
Intercepted  Letters — Doubts  over  the  Future  of 
America — Gloomy  Views  of  a  Discouraged  Man  .  182-192 

CHAPTER  XII 

Deane  an  Exile  in  Holland— Cornwallis  Crushed  while 
Deane  Despairs — Publication  of  Intercepted  Letters — 
Charge  of  Bribery — Tom  Paine  Happy — Franklin 
Loses  Confidence  in  Deane — Beaumarchais'  Friendli 
ness — Increasing  Poverty — Jay's  Advice — Hard  Times 
for  the  Exile  .......  193-214 

CHAPTER  XIII 

Isolation,  Poverty,  and  Misery  in  England — Illness  of 
Jesse  Deane — Business  Sends  Deane  to  England — 
Benedict  Arnold  Calls — Animosity  Continues — Address 
to  America — Charged  with  Influencing  England 
against  America — Laurens's  Charges — Distress,  Hun 
ger,  and  Robbery  ......  215-243 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Deane's  Last  Enterprise  and  its  Failure — Plan  for  a  Canal 
from  Champlain  to  St.  Lawrence — Delay  because  of 
Illness — Palsied  Limbs  and  Sinking  Heart — Final  Ap 
peals  for  Justice — Sails  from  Deal,  England,  Sept.  23, 
1789 — Dies  on  Ship  and  Buried  in  Deal  .  .  244-253 


Contents  xiii 

PAGES 

CHAPTER  XV 

The  Vindication— Reports  of  Death  and  Comments — 
Charge  of  Atheism,  Post-mortem  Slander — Memorial  to 
Congress  in  1835— Charges  Exploded— In  1842,  Thirty- 
seven  Thousand  Dollars  Voted  to  Deane's  Heirs — Ver 
dict  Concerning  Deane's  Character — In  No  Sense  a 
Traitor,  but  an  Honest,  Effective,  though  at  Length 
Discouraged  Man  ...  .  254-271 

INDEX  .....     273 


SILAS  DEANE 


CHAPTER  I 

SILAS  DEANE  A  MERCHANT  IN  WETHERSFIELD 

IN  the  summer  of  1633,  venturesome  and  trying 
John  Oldham  gave  the  Massachusetts  people 
a  little  rest,  and  ascended  the  Connecticut  to  the 
little  Indian  hamlet  of  Pyquag,  a  part  of  the 
sachemdom  of  the  chieftain  Soheag,  who  reigned 
at  what  is  now  Middletown,  twelve  miles  down 
river. 

Attracted  by  the  glorious  elms,  rich  and  sightly 
uplands,  broad  meadows  fertilized  by  freshets 
every  spring,  waters  teeming  with  fish,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  this  pioneer  in  the  following  year 
led  a  band  of  adventurers  from  Watertown, 
Massachusetts,  and  building  their  log  houses  just 
beyond  the  space  visited  by  the  spring  floods, 
they  settled  the  ancient  town  of  Wethersfield. 

In  the  autumn  of  i635,Winthrop  tells  us,  "About 


2  Silas  Deane 

sixty  men,  women,  and  little  children  went  by  land 
toward  Connecticut  with  their  cows,  horses,  and 
swine,  and  after  a  tedious  and  difficult  journey, 
arrived  there." 

The  next  period  of  a  century  and  a  half  was 
likewise  tedious.  Welcomed  by  the  friendly 
Indians  along  the  river,  as  avenues  of  trade  and 
allies  against  the  dangerous  Mohawks  and  Pe- 
quots,  they  bought  a  tract  of  land  six  miles  square, 
laid  out  their  roads,  built  their  homes,  their  church 
and  fortress,  and  entered  upon  a  century  and  a  half 
of  hard  work  and  peril.  There  were  years  when 
no  one  could  be  sure  that  a  band  of  braves  was 
not  lurking  in  the  forest  for  months,  waiting 
for  the  right  time  for  the  midnight  attack.  Again 
and  again  the  citizen  soldiers  marched  out  of  the 
village  streets  on  the  Pequot  campaign,  to  Deer- 
field,  Albany,  for  deadly  Havana,  to  Louisburg, 
Crown  Point,  Ticonteroga,  and  Quebec.  The 
campaign  of  1762  ended  the  long  contest  known 
as  the  "Old  French  War." 

In  that  year,  Silas  Deane,  a  young  lawyer 
from  Yale,  put  up  his  shingle  in  the  towrn  of 
Wethersfield,  which,  despite  its  struggles  and 
losses,  had  grown  wealthy  and  prosperous  with 
cultivating  the  soil,  manufactures,  and  a  brisk 
shipping  trade. 


Merchant  in  Wethersfield  3 

Silas  Deane,  son  of  Silas  Deane,  a  blacksmith 
of  Groton,  Connecticut,  was  born  December  24, 
I737>  graduated  from  Yale  in  the  class  of  1758, 
taught  school,  after  the  custom  of  his  time,  studied 
law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1761. 

The  prosperous  town,  which  was  to  be  his  home 
for  twelve  years,  had  a  population  of  2500  inhabit 
ants,  and  a  grand  list  three  quarters  as  large  as 
that  of  Hartford.  It  was  decidedly  inviting 
to  the  young  lawyer,  who  saw  no  necessity  for 
starting  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  but  had  the 
nerve  to  marry  on  October  8,  1763,  Mehitabel, 
widow  of  Mr.  Joseph  Webb,  five  years  his  senior, 
and  blessed  with  six  children  and  a  thriving  store. 

Squire  Deane  threw  himself  into  commercial 
life  with  all  his  energy,  and  before  long  he  was 
widely  known  as  a  man  of  enterprise,  vigor,  and 
good  judgment. 

In  1764,  he  built  a  substantial  house  just  north 
of  his  store,  and  soon  afterwards  a  boy,  Jesse, 
his  only  child,  was  born.  On  October  13,  1767, 
his  wife  died  of  consumption,  and  later  he  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Governor  Gurdon  Salton- 
stall  of  Norwich. 

There  was  a  large  assortment  in  the  population 
of  Wethersfield  during  those  twelve  years,  while 
Deane  practised  his  calling  of  merchant,  trader, 


4  Silas  Deane 

and  politician.  It  ranged  all  the  way  from  Mrs. 
Joseph  Smith,  who  paid  two  pounds  and  ten 
shillings  for  a  pair  of  red  shoes,  to  the  squaw  slave 
owned  by  Rector  Elisha  Williams. 

It  startles  us  a  little  to  think  that  in  those  days 
of  blossoming  freedom  there  should  have  been 
slaves  in  a  Puritan  village;  but  one  in  twenty- 
five  was  negro  or  Indian,  and  many  of  these 
humble  people  were  slaves.  The  upright  Leonard 
Chester  owned  a  "Neager  Maide, "  appraised 
at  twenty -five  pounds.  Some  of  the  slaves  were 
offered  their  freedom  if  they  would  serve  three 
years  in  the  army. 

We  must  not  press  too  far  the  question  as  to 
the  origin  of  these  lowly  helpers.  We  know  the 
origin  of  the  Indian  slaves.  Long  enough  the  steal 
thy  red  men  carried  terror  and  loss  to  the  hamlets 
by  the  Great  River.  No  wonder  some  of  their 
descendants  were  kept  washing  dishes  and  hoe 
ing  corn. 

Whether  negroes  were  brought  home  in  Wethers- 
field  sloops,  odds  and  ends  of  human  cargoes 
landed  in  Southern  ports,  it  is  perhaps  neither 
discreet  nor  kind  to  ask.  There  were  New  Eng 
land  ships  in  the  slave-trade.  Thrifty  captains 
left  our  ports  for  Lisbon,  or  the  Canary  Islands, 
"and  a  market";  the  market  was  the  west  coast 


Merchant  in  Wethersfield  5 

of  Africa,  and  on  the  return  there  came  a  load 
of  blacks  for  the  West  Indies,  Charleston,  or 
Savannah. 

While  not  exciting,  there  was  much  variety 
in  the  life  of  Wethersfield.  A  weekly  paper, 
The  Connecticut  C  our  ant,  came  to  town  from 
Hartford,  four  miles  up  river,  after  April,  1764. 
There  was  no  post-office  until  April  I,  1794,  and 
no  stage-coach  until  after  the  Revolution,  but 
a  public  wagon  went  through  the  town  at  inter 
vals  of  a  few  days,  for  the  town  was  on  the  great 
road  from  Boston  to  New  York. 

A  central  feature  of  the  life  of  the  village  was 
the  church,  whose  noble  meeting-house  was 
building  when  Deane  was  wooing  Mehitabel; 
and  in  the  church  he  had  a  prominent  place. 
The  records  tell  us  that  when  the  society  voted  to 
"discontinue  the  present  method  of  lining  out 
the  Psalms,"  Colonel  Chester,  Deacon  May,  and 
Silas  Deane  were  appointed  to  arrange  the  stations 
of  those  who  should  carry  the  principal  parts 
of  the  singing. 

It  was  at  a  time  when  the  formalities  of  religion 
were  rigidly  required.  It  was  an  expensive 
thing  to  stay  away  from  church.  Not  many 
miles  down  river  the  setting  sun  one  Saturday 
found  a  man  half -shaven,  owing  perhaps  to  a  dull 


6  Silas  Deane 

razor  or  a  week's  tough  growth  of  beard,  but  he 
was  in  church  the  next  day  with  a  muffler  over 
his  half -shaven  face. 

How  much  religion  Deane  drank  in  we  do 
not  know.  His  earlier  letters  contain  occasional 
specimens  of  the  language  of  religion,  but  after 
he  went  to  France  they  became  less  frequent. 

A  wide  variety  of  industries  was  carried  on 
in  the  town.  The  first  gristmill  in  the  colony, 
"come  mill,"  it  was  called,  was  built  on  Mill 
Brook,  a  mile  south  of  the  village,  in  1635.  Later, 
windmills  were  used  to  grind  grain,  and  sawmills 
were  operated  by  wind  and  water.  "Brick 
mills"  prepared  material  for  many  substantial 
houses  and  capacious  chimneys  with  their 
enormous  ovens,  on  Fort  Street,  Sandy  Lane, 
Jordan  Lane,  Main  and  Broad  Streets.  There 
were  several  tanneries  at  the  time  of  which  we 
write,  and  Ephraim  Williams' s  account  book, 
covering  1746  to  1760,  gives  an  interesting  story 
of  a  merchant  currier  and  shoemaker,  who  re 
ceived  prices  for  boots  and  shoes  which  seem 
extravagant  in  our  more  economical  days.  Colo 
nel  Israel  Williams  of  Hartford  paid  him  four 
pounds  for  a  pair  of  double-channelled  pumps, 
and  for  a  pair  of  double-channelled  boots  the 
price  was  fourteen  pounds. 


Merchant  in  Wethersfield  7 

Boots  were  one  of  the  extravagances  which 
the  Puritans  did  not  give  up:  the  leather  in  one 
pair  would  be  enough  for  six  pairs  of  shoes,  and 
those  great  square-toed  casings  would  last  a 
lifetime,  and  become  an  heirloom.  Captain 
Jonathan  Robbins  had  several  pairs  of  silk  shoes 
made  for  his  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
and  pumps  for  his  son,  Apple  ton. 

When  Washington  was  in  town,  a  guest  in  the 
Webb  house,  in  May,  1781,  he  was  measured  for 
a  pair  of  boots  by  a  first-class  Wethersfield  shoe 
maker. 

The  " smithy"  was  a  far  more  important 
establishment  than  nowadays,  for  axes,  chisels, 
ploughs,  hoes,  spades,  nails,  and  spikes  were  made 
there,  as  well  as  shoes  for  horses  and  cattle.  The 
fuel  for  the  smithy  was  charcoal.  There  were 
so  many  coal  pits  in  one  section  of  the  town  it 
was  called  "Collier  Swamp." 

A  prominent  industry  was  pipe  staves,  mostly 
of  oak,  put  up  in  bundles  or  "shooks"  and  shipped 
to  the  West  Indies  for  hogsheads  or  casks  for  rum, 
molasses,  and  sugar. 

There  was  a  fulling  mill,  and  a  carding  and 
weaving  mill,  though  hand-looms  wove  serges, 
kerseys,  flannels,  fustians,  linsey-woolseys,  tow- 
cloth,  dimities,  ginghams,  and  jeans. 


8  Silas  Deane 

Clothiers  and  tailors  were  hard  at  work,  and 
the  year  Deane  reached  town  Rev.  John  Marsh 
was  credited  on  Jonathan  Buckley's  account 
book  with  ''making  one  pair  Leather  Breeches — 
four  shillings,  sixpence. " 

Hats,  too,  were  "felted"  from  the  fur  of  the 
muskrat  from  the  river,  and  sold  in  New  York. 

Ropes  and  cordage  were  in  great  demand  for 
the  rigging  of  the  ships  made  at  Stepney,  a  hamlet 
of  Wethersfield  four  miles  below.  Hemp  was 
raised  as  early  as  1640,  and  "hemp  mills"  and  a 
rope- walk  were  indispensable. 

Fish,  a  leading  attraction  to  the  early  settlers, 
was  abundant  almost  to  superfluity  in  the  river 
before  the  days  of  chemicals  and  sewage.  Salmon 
and  shad  were  sold  in  Hartford  in  1700  for  "less 
than  a  penny  a  pound. "  Fishes  were  sometimes 
piled  up  on  a  corner  lot  for  sale:  and  it  was  con 
sidered  disreputable  for  any  but  "poor  folks"  to 
eat  shad.  Apprentices,  in  binding  themselves  to 
their  masters,  frequently  stipulated  that  salmon 
should  not  be  served  them  as  food  oftener  than 
twice  a  week.  Fish  made  a  first-class  fertilizer: 
a  shad  in  a  hill  of  corn  was  as  strong  a  plant  food 
as  a  handful  of  phosphate. 

The  staple  crops  were  grass,  Indian  corn, 
Indian  beans,  barley,  rye,  peas,  onions,  and 


Merchant  in  Wethersfield  9 

tobacco.  Tobacco  was  a  valuable  export  to  the 
West  Indies.  The  famous  Wethersfield,  large 
red  onions  were  cultivated  mainly  by  the  women, 
who  were  seldom  too  high-minded  to  shrink  from 
the  lowly  task  of  weeding  them.  Women  were 
fond  of  bunching  them;  sitting  around  a  heap  of 
fragrant  bulbs,  they  dressed  off  the  butcher,  dis 
sected  the  doctor,  did  up  the  grocer,  measured  the 
tailor,  sized  up  the  shoemaker,  hammered  the 
blacksmith,  and  dozed  over  the  minister. 

We  wish  it  were  not  necessary  to  mention 
another  industry,  but  they  did  have  distilleries. 
Farmers  appreciated  the  still  for  it  made  a  mar 
ket  for  their  rye,  and  on  all  occasions,  from  a  barn 
raising  to  the  ordination  of  the  minister,  flip  was  a 
favorite  beverage. 

Apples  were  common  after  1750,  when  orchards 
began  to  come  into  bearing,  and  since  there  were 
scarcely  any  winter  varieties,  the  juice  of  the 
apples  could  be  preserved  in  barrels,  to  cheer  and 
sometimes  inebriate,  through  the  long  cold  months. 
Cider  was  displacing  at  meals  the  beer,  which  the 
women  had  brewed  as  regularly  and  conscien 
tiously  as  they  made  rye  bread. 

It  was  a  neighborly  kind  of  life  the  people  lived ; 
when  farmers  butchered,  they  exchanged  spare- 
ribs  and  quarters  of  beef  and  lamb.  The  common 


io  Silas  Deane 

table  ware  was  of  pewter;  there  were  no  carpets 
in  the  spare  room  beneath  the  gambrel-roof ,  but 
what  furniture  there  was,  was  substantial,  well 
made,  though  not  always  comfortable.  The 
cherry  clocks,  highboys,  lowboys,  chests,  and 
oaken  chairs  which  have  come  down  to  us  speak 
of  a  sterling  age. 

The  food  of  that  time  was  varied.  The  Yankee 
cooks  were  skillful  in  concocting  dishes  whose 
mysteriousness  would  puzzle  us  to-day.  No 
doubt  there  came  upon  Deane' s  table  berries  of  all 
kinds,  quinces,  cherries,  damsons,  peaches,  arti 
chokes,  grapes,  and  walnuts,  put  into  all  kinds  of 
preserves,  conserves,  pickles,  candies,  syrups,  and 
cordials.  He  enjoyed  peas,  turnips,  carrots,  cu 
cumbers,  beef,  pork,  lamb,  geese,  turkeys,  and 
chickens.  Potatoes  had  a  limited  use,  but  apples 
were  wrought  into  tarts,  shrub,  dowdy,  puff,  and 
the  celebrated  pie.  Pumpkin  pie  was  also  a  famous 
dainty. 

The  store  in  which  Deane  did  business  stood 
high,  and  was  reached  by  five  long  stone  steps, 
one  of  which  is  in  front  of  the  present  post-office. 
He  kept  a  large  variety  of  goods :  flour,  molasses, 
sugar,  rope,  knives,  Barcelona  handkerchiefs, 
sieves,  fustian,  buttons.  In  1765,  he  advertised 
in  The  Connecticut  Courant  a  quantity  of  choice 


Merchant  in  Wethersfield          n 

brandy,  which  he  was  willing  to  part  with  at  a 
very  low  rate  for  cash,  either  by  the  hogshead, 
barrel,  or  keg,  also  hemp  seed  at  twenty  shillings  a 
bushel. 

The  Great  River  was  a  convenient  thoroughfare 
for  extensive  ventures,  shipping  lumber,  barrel 
staves,  horses,  cattle,  tobacco,  and  onions  to  the 
West  Indies  and  Europe.  Wethersfield  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  rest  of  New  England  in  com 
mercial  activity.  In  1760,  the  first  lighthouse 
was  erected  on  the  coast,  paid  for  by  a  lottery 
authorized  by  the  General  Assembly. 

In  1768,  Captain  John  Bulkley  was  running  a 
sloop  from  Wethersfield  to  the  Caribbean  Islands, 
carrying  oxen,  horses,  and  cows.  Trade  was 
springing  up  with  Ireland,  whither  was  sent 
flaxseed,  then  and  long  afterward  a  staple  pro 
duction.  Flour  and  lumber  were  carried  to 
Gibraltar  and  Barbary.  Vessels  carried  fish  to 
Lisbon  and  Bilboa,  and  brought  back  wines. 
Lumber  and  potashes  were  shipped  to  England. 
Beef  and  pork  loaded  many  a  sloop  bound  for 
New  York  and  the  West  Indies,  bringing  back 
molasses,  sugar,  and  spices. 

The  river  was  a  busy  place,  and  the  life  of  the 
young  merchant  was  far  from  narrow  in  his  store  or 
at  the  wharves,  fitting  out  vessels,  corresponding 


12  Silas  Deane 

with  business  men  near  and  far,  caring  for  his 
large  household,  attending  to  the  duties  of  the 
church  and  the  merry  social  life,  in  that  short 
breathing  spell  between  the  Old  French  War  and 
the  terrible  Revolution,  whose  thunder  clouds  were 
beginning  to  fill  thoughtful  minds  with  dread. 


CHAPTER  II 

DEANE'S  ACTIVITY  IN  THE  POLITICAL  STRUGGLES  ( 
BEFORE  THE  REVOLUTION 

'T'HE  three  river  towns,  Hartford,  Wethersfield, 
*  and  Windsor,  held  from  an  early  date  ad 
vanced  views  concerning  the  principles  which  led  to 
the  Revolution.  Their  settlement  was  due  more  to 
a  democratic  reaction  against  the  aristocratic  views 
of  Winthrop  and  Cotton  as  to  government,  than  to 
a  desire  for  land.  At  first,  the  river  towns  were 
governed  by  a  commission  established  by  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  but  four  years  after 
the  settlement  began  the  people  felt  at  liberty  to 
govern  themselves,  and  on  January  14,  1639,  the 
constitution  of  the  new  colony  was  adopted; 
and  into  that  constitution  was  written  Thomas 
Hooker's  democratic  theory  of  government. 

Suffrage  was  granted  to  all  free  men,  the  princi 
ple  of  representative  democracy  was  applied  to  the 
infant  state  without  reservation,  and  authority 
was  traced  to  the  free  suffrage  of  free  men.  This 

13 


14  Silas  Deane 

famous  document,  the  constitution  of  1639, 
marks  an  epoch  in  the  civil  history  of  the  world. 
It  put  into  action  for  the  first  time  the  declaration 
made  by  Thomas  Hooker,  in  his  sermon,  May  31, 
1638,  "that  the  foundation  of  authority  is  laid 
firstly  in  the  free  consent  of  the  people. " 

Thus,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  delegates 
of  Wethersfield,  Hartford,  and  Windsor  crystallized 
into  a  written  constitution  the  principles  of  de 
mocracy,  which  for  centuries  had  been  slowly 
evolving  in  England,  and  later  had  such  splendid 
expression  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
a  constitution  which  has  become  the  model  for  all 
democracies.  It  is  the  first  written  constitution 
defining  its  own  powers.  With  such  a  past,  we 
are  not  surprised  that  Wethersfield,  in  the  time  of 
Deane,  had  a  keen  interest  in  the  political  events 
that  led  to  the  Revolution. 

Opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act  was  as  pronounced 
in  Connecticut  as  in  the  Bay  Colony,  and,  as  early 
as  1765,  the  Sons  of  Liberty  from  the  eastern 
towns  joined  with  those  on  the  river  in  bold 
defiance  of  the  obnoxious  measure. 

Jared  Ingersoll  of  New  Haven,  the  stamp- 
master  newly  appointed  by  the  Crown,  met  with 
such  determined  resistance  that  he  was  obliged  to 
resign  his  office.  This  opposition  appeared  first 


Zeal  for  Freedom  15 

in  New  Haven,  New  London,  and  Windham 
counties,  but,  evading  the  demand  for  his  resig 
nation,  he  started  on  horseback  for  Hartford 
where  the  General  Assembly  was  about  to  meet. 
For  a  part  of  the  way  he  was  attended  by  Governor 
Fitch  to  protect  him  from  insult.  On  his  way  up 
the  river,  when  within  a  few  miles  of  Wether sfield, 
Ingersoll  was  met  by  a  party  of  four  or  five  mounted 
men ;  half  a  mile  farther  he  was  met  by  a  second 
squad,  and  they  all  rode  silently  together  until 
they  came  to  a  company  of  five  hundred  free 
holders,  all  mounted,  and  armed  with  long,  heavy 
sticks,  from  which  the  bark  had  been  peeled, 
giving  them  a  resemblance  to  the  staves  of  office 
carried  by  sheriffs  and  constables.  This  force, 
led  by  one  Durkee,  with  two  fully  uniformed 
militia  officers  acting  as  aids,  and  heralded  by  three 
trumpeters,  rode,  two  abreast;  and  with  quiet 
courtesy,  opening  ranks  to  receive  the  stamp 
collector,  they  closed  silently  around  and  behind 
him.  We  think  we  can  imagine  his  feelings,  and 
the  cool-headed,  humorous  Tory  saw  the  comical 
side  of  the  affair,  for  when  one  of  his  escort  quizzi 
cally  inquired  of  him  what  he  thought  of  him 
self  attended  by  such  a  retinue,  Ingersoll,  who 
chanced  to  be  riding  a  white  horse,  quickly  replied 
that  he  now  had  a  clearer  idea  than  ever  before  of 


16  Silas  Deane 

that  passage  in  the  Revelation,  which  speaks  of 
"  Death  on  a  pale  horse  and  all  hell  following. " 

Reaching  the  immense  elm  in  front  of  the 
Colonel  Chester  mansion  on  Broad  Street,  the 
procession  halted,  and  demanded  that  the  matter 
be  settled  there.  The  stalwart  farmers  would 
brook  no  delay,  and  Ingersoll,  reading  the  faces 
of  his  opponents,  said,  "The  cause  is  not  worth 
dying  for,"  and  wrote  and  signed  his  resigna 
tion.  He  was  then  persuaded  to  shout  three 
times,  "  Liberty  and  Property. "  After  dinner  the 
mounted  men  attended  Ingersoll  to  Hartford, 
where  he  again  read  his  resignation  and  the  Sons 
of  Liberty  dispersed. 

Not  long  after  this,  the  people  of  Wethersfield 
had  an  opportunity  to  show  their  spirit  of  oppo 
sition  to  the  encroachments  of  King  George.  In 
April,  1768,  the  merchants  of  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  New  York  made  a  compact  to 
unite  in  stopping  the  importation  of  goods  from 
Great  Britain.  The  Connecticut  merchants  kept 
the  agreement  with  more  fidelity  than  those  of 
New  York,  and  this  led  to  a  general  convention  of 
delegates  from  all  the  towns  of  the  Connecticut 
colony  to  "take  into  consideration  the  perilous 
condition  of  the  country,  to  provide  for  the 
growth  and  spread  of  home  manufactures,  and 


Zeal  for  Freedom  17 

to  devise  more  thorough  means  for  carrying  out 
to  the  letter  the  non-importation  agreement." 
The  spirit  of  the  people  was  manifested  in  the 
resolutions  passed  by  the  town  meetings. 

At  a  meeting  held  in  Wethersfield,  December 
25,  1769,  it  was 

Voted  that  it  is  and  ever  has  been  the  opinion  of  this 
town  that  the  late  acts  of  Parliament  commonly 
called  the  American  Revenue  Acts,  imposing  certain 
duties  on  paper,  glass,  etc.,  are  in  themselves  un 
constitutional,  offensive,  and  tending  to  that  total 
subversion  of  the  liberties  of  his  Majesty's  subjects 
in  America ;  that  the  opposition  made  thereto  through 
out  the  Continent  has  been  noble,  just,  firm,  and 
deserving  of  highest  applause  through  every  age. 

That  in  particular  the  resolution  against  import 
ing  goods  of  merchandise  from  Great  Britain,  until 
said  Acts  are  repealed,  so  genuinely  and  unanimously 
come  into  by  the  merchants  in  America,  and  so  uni 
versally  approved  of  by  the  people,  is  worthy  of  the 
highest  commendation,  as  being  the  most  effectual 
method  for  obtaining  relief, — Do  resolve  to  abide  by 
the  same,  and  as  far  as  possible  to  prevent  the  least 
breach  thereof  by  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  town 
or  others :  nor  will  we  purchase  nor  use  nor  consume 
any  goods  imported  contrary  to  said  agreement,  so 
universally  come  into. 

And,  for  the  more  effectual  preventing  any  counter 
acting  said  resolution,  we  do  appoint  Messeurs.  Silas 
Deane,  Ezekiel  Williams,  Elisha  Williams,  David 
Webb,  and  Elias  Williams,  a  committee,  directing 


1 8  Silas  Deane 

them,  with  the  utmost  vigilance  and  care  to  guard 
against  and  prevent  any  attempt  to  put  in  execution 
so  fatal  and  infamous  a  purpose  as  that  of  sacrificing 
the  good  of  this  Continent  and  their  posterity  to  pri 
vate  gain  and  emolument:  desiring  them  to  corre 
spond  and  consult  with,  as  well  as  aid  and  assist,  the 
other  committees  appointed  in  the  neighboring  towns 
and  elsewhere  for  this  purpose. 

On  February  20,  1774,  when  Connecticut  mer 
chants  declared  non-intercourse  against  the  mer 
chants  of  .'Newport,  charging  them  with  infraction 
of  the  non-importation  agreement,  designed  to 
coerce  England  into  a  fuller  acknowledgment  of 
American  rights,  Deane  was  clerk  of  the  meeting, 
and  signed  the  circular. 

Unwilling  to  wait  for  the  formal  action  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  October,  the  people  of  Weth- 
ersfield  met  in  the  Congregational  meeting-house 
in  June,  to  express  sympathy  with  Boston,  which 
was  suffering  from  the  Port  Bill.  Resolutions  of 
sympathy  were  passed,  and  a  committee  appointed 
to  receive  contributions  from  the  people  and  for 
ward  them  to  Boston,  and  the  first  name  on  the 
list  of  contributors  is  Silas  Deane.  In  October, 
1772,  Deane  took  his  place  with  Captain  Belden  in 
the  General  Assembly,  of  which  he  was  a  member 
until  two  years  later,  when  he  was  sent  to  the 
Continental  Congress. 


Zeal  for  Freedom  19 

We  look  in  vain  for  many  exciting  incidents  in 
the  legislation  of  those  years.  A  large  part  of  the 
energy  of  the  law  makers  was  exercised  in  ap 
pointing  officers  for  the  trainbands  in  the  different 
towns.  It  was  voted  that  Deane  and  three  others 
be  appointed  a  committee  to  receive  money  to 
be  raised  by  a  lottery,  to  erect  buoys  and  other 
signals  on  Say  brook  Bar. 

It  was  voted,  in  1772,  that  a  horse  thief 
should  be  fined  and  publicly  whipped,  and  sent  to 
jail  for  three  months,  and  on  the  first  Monday 
of  the  other  two  months,  he  was  to  receive  publicly 
ten  more  lashes. 

On  May  21,  1773,  a  letter  having  been  received 
from  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  concern 
ing  the  support  of  the  ancient,  legal,  and  con 
stitutional  rights,  it  was  voted  in  the  Connecticut 
Assembly  that  a  standing  committee  of  nine  be 
appointed,  called  a  Committee  of  Correspondence, 
"whose  business  it  shall  be  to  obtain  all  such  in 
telligence,  and  keep  up  and  maintain  a  correspond 
ence  and  communication  with  our  sister  colonies. " 
Deane  was  the  zealous  and  efficient  secretary  of 
this  committee. 

In  the  same  year,  he  was  appointed  on  an  im 
portant  committee  concerning  western  lands,  in 
the  settlement  of  the  Susquehanna  Claims. 


20  Silas  Deane 

In  March,  1774,  the  governor  of  Connecticut 
sent  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  a  British  Secre 
tary  of  State,  a  letter  complaining  of  the  dis 
sensions  due  to  British  aggression,  and  of  the 
unlimited  powers  claimed  by  Parliament,  which 
were  driving  the  Americans  to  the  border  of  de 
spair;  expressing  deep  sympathy  with  Boston, 
whose  closed  port  had  wrought  such  distress;  and 
while  insisting  that  the  interests  of  the  two 
countries  were  identical,  yet  calling  for  relief. 
One  of  the  six  men  of  the  lower  house  appointed 
to  confer  with  a  committee  of  the  upper  house  on 
this  matter  was  Deane. 

Evidently  the  young  lawyer-merchant  was 
giving  good  account  of  himself  in  the  colonial 
Assembly,  and  in  the  movement  which  was  lead 
ing  up  to  the  Revolution;  and  when,  in  1774,  it 
was  proposed  to  hold  in  Philadelphia  a  Conti 
nental  Congress,  it  was  natural  that  Deane  shcjuld 
be  sent  on  the  important  mission  of  assisting  in 
the  organization  of  the  colonies  into  unanimity 
and  efficiency,  to  suppress  disorder,  and  boldly 
resist  the  stupid  endeavors  of  the  British 
Ministry. 


CHAPTER  III 

DEANE,    SHERMAN,   AND   DYER    REPRESENT    CON 
NECTICUT  IN  THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS 

HPHE  work  of  Deane  on  the  Committee  of 
A  Correspondence  of  the  colony  was  so  effect 
ive,  and  his  reputation  as  a  patriot  of  good  judg 
ment  and  devotion  so  high,  that  he  was  appointed 
to  serve  with  Judge  Roger  Sherman  of  New  Haven 
and  Eliphalet  Dyer  of  Windom  to  represent 
Connecticut  in  Philadelphia  in  1774.  On  August 
1 6  of  that  year,  Deane  wrote  to  Governor  Trum- 
bull  to  find  the  number  and  size  of  the  ships  of  the 
colony,  and  a  general  statement  of  its  imports  and 
exports.  He  urged  the  importance  of  accurate 
accounts,  and  added,  "I  purpose  setting  out  next 
Monday." 

It  was  a  great  day  for  Wethersfield  when  their 
able  young  statesman,  in  the  full  vigor  of  his 
prime,  set  forth  for  Congress  on  Monday,  August 
22,  1774.  He  was  thirty-seven  years  old;  he  had 
a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  leading  men  in  his 
own  colony,  and  in  the  neighboring  colonies.  A 

21 


22  Silas  Deane 

large  number  of  the  principal  men  of  the  town 
escorted  him  as  far  as  Middletown,  twelve  miles 
down  the  river.  His  step-son,  Samuel  B.  Webb, 
who  was  just  twenty-one,  attended  him.  Webb 
was  commissioned  lieutenant-major  at  Bunker 
Hill,  and  afterwards,  through  Deane's  influence, 
he  obtained  a  position  on  Washington's  staff. 
The  quality  of  the  training  of  Webb  under  the 
eye  of  Deane  is  suggested  by  the  charge  which  has 
come  down  to  us:  "Be  master  of  your  pleasures, 
and  not  let  them  master  you.  Let  me  urge  on 
you  patience  and  assiduity  until  you  can  be 
honorably  advised.  Master  all  the  principles 
and  movements  of  the  great  army." 

They  were  joined  at  New  Haven  by  Eliphalet 
Dyer,  and  at  Fan-field,  by  Roger  Sherman,  and  on 
Thursday,  August  25,  they  reached  New  York, 
and  put  up  at  Hill's  Tavern  at  the  sign  of  the 
Bunch  of  Grapes. 

In  those  days,  before  the  lumbering  stage 
coach  had  appeared,  Deane  traveled  in  his  own 
carriage,  and  there  is  an  interesting  comment  on 
the  extravagance  which  ignorant  critics  after 
wards  attributed  to  him  in  his  village  career. 
He  wrote  to  his  wife  that  while  in  New  York  he 
visited  a  carriage  factory  to  learn  the  prices,  and 
when  he  found  that  it  would  cost  five  pounds  to 


Delegate  to  Congress  23 

paint  and  regild  his  carriage  he  denied  himself  the 
luxury,  fearing  his  money  would  not  hold  out  till 
he  reached  home. 

We  let  Deane  tell  the  story  of  this  expedition. 
Writing  to  his  wife  Elizabeth,  he  says : 

We  left  the  Bridge  after  dinner,  and  baiting  by  the 
way  arrived  in  town  at  six.  Instantly  Mr.  Bayard 
came  up  and  forced  us  directly  to  the  Exchange, 
where  were  the  Boston  delegates  and  two  from  South 
Carolina,  and  all  the  gentlemen  of  considerable  note 
in  the  city  in  a  mercantile  way:  when  we  had  dined, 
and  were  passing  around  the  glass,  we  went  the 
round  of  introduction  and  congratulation,  and  then 
took  our  seats.  The  glass  had  circulated  just  long 
enough  to  raise  the  spirits  of  every  one  to  that  nice 
point  which  is  above  disguise  or  suspicion.  Of  conse 
quence  I  saw  that  it  was  an  excellent  opportunity  to 
know  their  real  situation.  Cool  myself,  I  was  not 
afraid  of  sharing  in  the  jovial  entertainment;  there 
fore,  after  the  introduction,  I  waived  formality  of 
sitting  at  the  upper  part  among  my  brother  delegates, 
and  mixed  up  among  the  gentlemen  of  the  city.  I 
found  many  favorable  to  the  cause  and  willing  to  go 
any  length.  I  found  they  were  fond  of  paying  great 
court  to  Connecticut.  We  broke  up  at  nine. 

Deane  gives  an  interesting  glimpse  of  Judge 
Sherman,  so  famous  later  for  his  work  on  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  He  wrote  his  wife: 


24  Silas  Deane 

Mr.  Sherman  is  clever  in  private,  but  I  will  only  say 
he  is  as  badly  calculated  to  appear  in  such  a  company 
as  a  chestnut  burr  is  for  an  eyestone.  He  occasioned 
some  shrewd  countenances  among  the  company,  and 
not  a  few  oaths  by  the  odd  questions  he  asked,  and 
the  very  odd  and  countrified  cadence  with  which  he 
speaks,  but  he  was  and  did  as  well  as  I  expected. 

At  that  early  time,  Deane  found  traces  of  a 
spirit,  which  in  later  years  was  to  bring  him  such 
keen  misery.  He  says,  "The  more  I  converse  in 
the  city,  the  more  I  see  and  lament  the  virulence 
of  party." 

Judge  Sherman's  Puritan  strictness  was  a  trial  to 
Deane,  who  wrote  his  wife  on  Sunday,  August  28 : 

Heard  Parson  Treat  in  the  forenoon  and  Mr.  Ledlie 
in  the  afternoon.  Mr.  Sherman  (would  to  heaven 
he  were  well  at  New  Haven ! )  is  against  our  sending 
our  carriages  over  the  ferry  this  evening  because 
it  is  Sunday,  so  we  shall  have  a  scorching  sun  to  drive 
forty  miles  in  to-morrow. 

Deane  bought  some  new  clothes  in  New  York, 
and  evidently  the  assortment  was  scanty,  for  he 
wrote,  "  I  am  not  well  suited,  but  took  the  best  I 
found." 

His  letters  are  full  of  tender  solicitude  for  his 
wife,  whose  health  was  evidently  frail.  He  says; 


Delegate  to  Congress  25 

Pray  omit  nothing  conducive  to  your  health  and 
peace  of  mind.  I  have  been  really  ill  until  this  after 
noon,  when  the  villainous  carelessness  of  the  tailor  so 
awakened  me  that  I  feel  well.  I  go  hence  with  an 
additional  weight  upon  my  spirits  by  reason  of  the 
uncertainty  I  am  in,  and  remain  in,  as  to  your  health. 

Still  heavier  would  have  been  his  load,  could  he 
have  realized  that  he  would  scarcely  see  her  again. 
She  died  while  Deane  was  in  Paris. 

At  Trent  Town  it  was  hot.  "  I  was  worn,"  he 
says,  "  anxious,  sick,  went  to  bed  after  eleven,  but 
could  not  sleep ;  I  turned  and  turned,  while  Judge 
Sherman,  who  lodged  in  the  same  chamber,  snored 
in  concert." 

Deane  was  pleased  with  the  delegates  from 
Virginia  and  other  Southern  States.  "  They  ap 
pear,"  he  says,  "like  men  of  importance,  sociable, 
sensible,  and  spirited  men." 

We  see  the  effects  of  their  stimulus  upon  the 
Wethersfield  legislator,  when  we  read,  "We  are 
in  high  spirits  when  the  eyes  of  millions  are  upon 
us,  and  consider  posterity  is  interested  in  our 
conduct." 

He  speaks  of  the  prospect  of  unanimity  and  of 
the  willingness  to  undergo  hardship 

in  the  arduous  task  before  us,  which  is  as  arduous 
and  of  as  great  consequence  as  ever  man  undertook,  or 


26  Silas  Deane 

engaged  in.  I  never  met,  nor  scarcely  had  an  idea 
of  meeting,  with  men  of  such  firmness,  sensibility, 
spirit,  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  interests  of 
America  as  the  gentlemen  of  the  Southern  provinces 
appear  to  be.  May  New  England  go  hand  in  hand 
with  them. 

Yet  with  all  his  admiration  for  Washington, 
Henry,  Randolph,  and  Dickinson,  he  is  proud  to 
represent  Connecticut,  and  well  he  might  be,  for 
Connecticut  entered  the  Revolution  under  singu 
larly  favorable  conditions,  passing  as  a  whole 
from  a  royal  colony  into  the  revolutionary  state 
by  the  alteration  of  a  few  words  in  the  enactment 
of  the  legislature.  In  a  moment  the  royal 
governor  became  the  governor  of  a  new  state. 

Not  so  was  it  with  Massachusetts,  rent  by 
faction,  the  extreme  revolutionists  in  control. 
Not  so  in  New  York,  where  royalty  was  strong, 
and  the  success  of  the  popular  party  for  a  time 
doubtful;  where  wealth,  position,  and  influ 
ence  favored  conservatism,  and  inclined  toward 
neutrality. 

Connecticut  could  act  with  greater  freedom, 
directness,  and  force.  Her  trade  with  the  West 
Indies  and  Europe  gave  her  ready  money,  and 
furnished  a  body  of  hardy  seamen.  Connecticut 
had  for  generations  been  in  the  fire  of  Indian  wars, 


Delegate  to  Congress  27 

and  through  the  Revolution  General  Washington 
turned  repeatedly  to  the  governor  of  Connecticut 
for  counsel,  men,  and  means.  Governor  Jona 
than  Trumbull  was  the  ''Brother  Jonathan,"  on 
whom  he  depended  in  many  a  day  of  stress  and 
anxiety. 

Deane  wrote  from  Philadelphia : 

I  see  the  Wethersfield  company  under  Captain 
Chester  appeared  with  honor  on  a  recent  occasion. 
This  has  made  me  an  inch  taller,  though  I  am  prouder 
as  I  may  say  of  Connecticut  than  I  dare  express: 
not  a  colony  on  the  continent  stands  in  higher 

estimation  among  the  colonies. 

£- 

Congress  met  on  September  7,  and  Reverend 
Mr.  Duche  offered  a  prayer  which  Deane  said 
"was  worth  riding  one  hundred  miles  to  hear; 
even  Quakers  shed  tears." 

He  sketches  Randolph,  president  of  Congress, 

as  noble  and  dignified  in  appearance,  and  may  be 
rising  of  sixty  years:  Mr.  Henry,  the  lawyer,  is  the 
completest  speaker  I  ever  heard :  Colonel  Washington 
is  tall, Very  young-looking,  and  of  an  easy,  soldier-like 
air  and  gesture.  He  does  not  appear  above  forty-five. 
It  is  said  that  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  hearing  of  the 
Boston  Port  Bill,  he  offered  to  train  and  arm  a  thou 
sand  men  at  his  own  expense.  Colonel  Washington 
speaks  very  modestly  and  in  cool  but  determined 
style  and  accent. 


28  Silas  Deane 

Little  remains  of  the  records  of  the  doings  of 
that  first  Congress.  On  September  23,  he  writes, 
"  Business  is  slow  from  the  vast  extent  and  lasting 
importance  of  the  questions. " 

Deane  was  elected  with  Sherman  and  Dyer 
by  the  colonial  legislature  to  the  second  Congress, 
which  met  in  May,  1775;  but,  before  his  second 
expedition  to  Philadelphia,  an  event  occurred 
which  gave  him  congratulation  and  praise. 

The  first  conquest  made  by  patriots  was  the 
capture  of  Fort  Ticonteroga  on  May  10,  1775,  by 
Colonel  Ethan  Allen. 

The  history  of  the  origin  of  the  enterprise,  to 
which  belongs  the  honor  of  compelling  the  first 
surrender  of  the  British  flag  to  the  coming  re 
public,  has  been  made  clear  by  J.  H.  Trumbull. 

On  Thursday  forenoon,  April  27,  Colonel  S.  H. 
Parsons  of  Middletown  arrived  at  Hartford  from 
Massachusetts,  eager  for  a  project  to  surprise 
Fort  Ticonteroga.  This  project  was  conceived  in 
an  interview  which  Parsons  had  with  Benedict 
Arnold,  captain  of  a  company  of  volunteers,  on 
their  march  to  the  camp  at  Cambridge.  On 
that  eventful  Thursday,  Colonel  Parsons,  Colonel 
Samuel  Wyllys  of  Hartford,  and  Silas  Deane  of 
Wethersfield  first  undertook  and  projected  taking 

,  the  fort.     A  sum  of  three  hundred  pounds  was 

\ 


Delegate  to  Congress  29 

obtained  from  the  treasurer  of  the  colony,  on  the 
personal  note  of  these  men  with  three  others,  and 
the  money  was  soon  on  its  way  northward;  and  a 
swift  express  was  sent  to  Colonel  Ethan  Allen 
requesting  him  to  be  ready  with  his  valiant  Green 
Mountain  Boys. 

This  prompt  action  of  Deane  is  in  accord  with  a 
letter  of  his  to  Ebenezer  Watson,  of  the  Courant, 
in  which  he  speaks  of  some  who  are  too  fear 
ful  of  spending  money,  or  of  losing  property.  He 
says,  "There  is  no  alternative  except  to  submit 
or  prepare  to  resist  even  unto  blood. " 

The  success  at  Ticonteroga  gave  Deane  some 
prestige  in  Congress,  and  with  his  experience  with 
men,  his  energy,  and  address,  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  him  on  important  committees.  A  naval 
force  was  one  of  his  favorite  projects. 

With  Washington,  Schuyler,  and  others  he  was 
appointed  to  consider  means  of  procuring  military 
supplies  for  the  colonies,  and  with  Washington  to 
estimate  the  cost  of  equipping  an  army. 

He  formulated  the  rules  for  a  continental  navy 
and  October  15,  1775,  selected  and  purchased  the 
first  vessel  for  the  service.  He  was  also  a  member 
of  the  Committee  of  Secrecy,  organized  September 
l&>  I775>  to  purcKase  arms  and  ammunition  in 
Europe. 


3°  Silas  Deane 

On  December  n,  Congress  appointed  a  strong 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  for  furnishing  a 
naval  armament.  This  committee  numbered  such 
men  as  Robert  Morris  and  Samuel  Adams,  but 
Silas  Deane  was  the  chairman. 

On  May  26, 1775,  Deane,  with  John  Jay,  Samuel 
Adams,  and  others,  was  appointed  on  a  committee 
to  send  a  letter  to  Canada. 

June  14,  Deane  was  appointed  on  a  committee 
with  George  Washington  to  bring  in  a  draft  of 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  army. 

July  31,  Deane  was  appointed  on  a  committee 
with  John  Adams,  Franklin,  and  others,  to  make 
inquiry  in  the  recess  of  Congress  about  virgin 
lead  and  leaden  ore,  and  the  best  methods  of 
refining  it. 

On  September  9,  Deane  was  appointed  on  the 
committee  of  nine  to  import  five  hundred  tons  of 
powder,  or  saltpetre  and  sulphur,  forty  brass 
cannon,  and  twenty  thousand  good,  plain,  double- 
bridled  musket  locks,  and  ten  thousand  stands  of 
good  arms. 

On  September  21,  Deane  was  appointed  on  a 
committee  of  five,  to  consider  the  best  means  of 
supplying  the  army  with  provisions. 

There  were  very  able  men  in  those  Congresses, 
men  of  the  caliber  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Robert 


Delegate  to  Congress  31 

Morris,  John  Jay,  George  Washington,  John  Adams, 
and  John  Dickinson,  and  it  is  clear  from  the 
respect  in  which  Deane  was  held,  as  shown  by  his 
appointment  to  the  above  and  other  committees, 
that  he  was  regarded  as  in  the  first  class  of  the 
strong  men  of  the  country. 

Fragments  of  the  debates  have  come  down  to  us 
through  John  Adams's  tireless  Journal. 

On  September  23,  Paine  said:  "We  have  not 
agreed  to  clothe  the  soldiers,  and  the  quarter 
master-general  has  no  right  to  keep  a  slop  shop 
any  more  than  any  one  else." 

Deane  sprang  to  his  feet  and  exclaimed:  "The 
army  must  be  clothed  or  perish.  There  is  no 
preaching  against  the  snow-storm.  We  ought  to 
look  out  that  the  men  are  kept  warm,  and  that 
the  means  of  doing  it  be  secured. " 

In  reply  to  Sherman,  who  said,  "The  sutlers  in 
the  last  war  sold  to  the  soldiers,  who  were  not 
obliged  to  take  anything,"  Deane  replied,  "The 
soldiers  were  imposed  on  by  the  sutlers  in  the  last 
war." 

On  October  12,  in  the  debate  on  the  state  of 
trade,  Deane  said:  "We  must  have  trade;  I  think 
we  ought  to  apply  abroad;  we  must  have  pow 
der  and  goods;  we  can't  keep  our  people  easy 
without." 


32  Silas  Deane 

This  will  be  developed  in  the  next  chapter,  but 
we  cannot  conclude  our  story  of  Deane's  career 
in  Congress  without  referring  to  his  acquaintance 
with  George  Washington. 

On  June  16,  1775,  Deane  wrote  to  his  wife : 

General  Washington  will  be  with  you  soon;  elected 
to  that  office  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  all  America. 
I  have  been  with  him  for  a  great  part  of  the  last 
forty-eight  hours  in  Congress  and  Committee,  land 
the  more  that  I  have  become  acquainted  with  the 
man,  the  more  I  esteem  him.  He  promises  me  to 
call,  and,  if  it  happens  favorably,  to  spend  the  night 
with  you.  I  wish  to  cultivate  this  gentleman's  ac 
quaintance  and  regard,  for  the  great  esteem  I  have 
of  his  virtues,  which  do  not  shine  in  the  view  of  the 
world  by  reason  of  his  great  modesty,  but  when  dis 
covered  by  the  discerning  eye  shine  brighter.  I  know 
you  will  receive  him  as  my  friend,  and  what  is  more — 
his  country's  friend,  who,  sacrificing  private  fortune, 
independence,  ease,  and  every  domestic  pleasure,  sets 
off  at  his  country's  call  to  exert  himself  in  her  de 
fense  without  so  much  as  returning  to  bid  adieu  to 
a  fond  partner  and  family.  Let  our  youth  look  up 
to  this  man  as  a  pattern  to  form  themselves  by, 
who  unites  the  bravery  of  a  soldier  with  the  most 
consummate  modesty  and  virtue. 

On  June  18,  Deane  wrote  again  to  his  wife : 

General  Washington  sets  out  on  Thursday  of  this 
week.  I  have  a  strong  temptation  to  accompany 
him  quite  to  the  camp.  This  morning,  Colonel 


Delegate  to  Congress  33 

Schuyler  and  I  rode  as  far  as  the  Falls  at  Schuylkill ; 
our  ride  was  to  consult  a  plan  we  are  forming  for 
another  bold  stroke  like  that  of  Ticonteroga  (which 
is  become  my  nickname  at  times).  People  here, 
members  of  Congress  and  others,  have  unhappily  and 
erroneously  thought  me  a  schemer;  this  has  brought 
me  rather  more  than  my  share  of  business  in  a  \  % 
commerical  way. 

He  adds  with  a  possible  premonition  of  coming 
troubles : 

I  find,  however,  that  he  that  has  the  least  to  do  in 
public  affairs  stands  the  fairest  chance  of  happiness. 
If  General  Washington  sets  out  on  Thursday,  he 
will  be  in  New  York  early  on  Saturday,  where  affairs 
will  doubtless  detain  him  until  Monday  or  Tuesday, 
and  in  that  case  he  will  be  with  you  on  the  Friday 
following.  He  is  no  lover  of  parade,  so  do  not  put 
yourself  in  distress.  If  it  happens  convenient,  he  will 
spend  one  night  with  you;  if  not,  just  call  and  go  on. 
Should  he  spend  a  night,  his  retinue  will  doubtless  go 
on  to  Hartford. 

On  June  22,  Deane  wrote  again  to  his  wife, 
"This  will  be  handed  you  by  his  Excellency, 
General  Washington,  in  company  with  General 
Lee  and  retinue." 

On  June  29,  Deane  wrote  his  wife: 

I  hope  before  this  you  have  seen  General  Washington 
and  friends  on  their  way  with  health  and  spirits;  the 
bearer  of  this  is  General  Gates  of  Virginia,  a  general 


34  Silas  Deane 

of  great  experience  in  war,  who  leaves  an  affluent 
and  independent  situation  for  the  service  of  the 
colonies.  You  will  receive  him  with  the  respect  due 
to  his  character. 

On  July  I ,  he  writes : 

I  have  the  fullest  assurance  that  these  colonies  will 
rise  triumphant,  and  shine  to  the  latest  posterity, 
though  trying  scenes  are  before  us.  Tell  my  brother 
to  get  his  vessel  away  as  quick  as  possible  somewhere 
or  other,  ...  I  hope  to  see  vessels  of  war  on  our 
side  soon. 

Deane  strongly  favored  Putnam  in  preference 
to  Wooster  as  general;  he  liked  his  bluff,  hearty 
ways.  "He  is  the  toast  of  the  army,"  he  said. 

On  July  20,  he  wrote  Mrs.  Deane: 

I  am  glad  the  good  and  virtuous  of  Connecticut  are 
willing  to  stand  by  the  resolution  of  Congress  in  the 
appointment  of  General  Putnam.  He  does  not  wear 
a  large  wig,  nor  screw  his  countenance  into  a  form 
that  belies  the  sentiments  of  his  generous  soul.  He 
is  no  adept  either  at  politics  or  religious  canting  or 
cozening;  he  is  no  shake-hand  body;  he,  therefore,  is 
totally  unfit  for  everything  but  fighting;  that,  I 
never  heard  these  intriguing  gentry  wanted  to  in 
terfere  with  him  in.  I  have  scarce  any  patience.  O 
Heaven  blast,  I  implore  thee,  every  such  low,  narrow, 
selfish,  envious  manoeuvre  in  the  land,  nor  let  one 
such  succeed  far  enough  to  stain  the  fair  page  of 
American  patriotic  politics ! 


Delegate  to  Congress  35 

My  principles  are  (the  eye  of  my  God  knows  them, 
and  the  most  envious  eye  of  man  or  the  bitterest 
tongue  of  slander  cannot  find  anything  in  my  political 
conduct  to  contradict  them)  to  sacrifice  all  lesser 
considerations  to  the  service  of  the  whole,  and  in  this 
tempestuous  season  to  throw  cheerfully  overboard 
private  fortune,  private  emolument,  even  my  life, — 
if  the  ship,  with  the  jewel  Liberty,  may  be  safe.  This 
being  my  line  of  conduct,  I  have  calmness  of  mind 
which  more  than  balances  my  external  troubles,  of 
which  I  have  not  a  few. 

This  we  regard  as  Deane's  valedictory,  in 
closing  two  terms  in  the  Continental  Congress. 
Associating  with  men  of  light  and  power,  with 
Franklin,  Washington,  Jay,  and  Morris,  he  ranked 
with  the  best. 

The  reasons  for  his  failure  of  an  election  to  a 
third  term  are  variously  given.  A  letter  from 
John  Trumbull  to  Deane,  October  20,  1775,  may 
explain  the  situation.  Speaking  of  the  malice 
and  envy  of  the  freemen  against  him,  he  adds: 
"We  have  a  strange  people  here  as  well  as  else 
where,  who  say, '  It  is  dangerous  to  trust  so  great 
power  as  you  now  have  for  a  long  time  in  the 
hands  of  one  set  of  men,  lest  they  should  grow 
too  self-important,  and  a  great  deal  of  mischief  in 
the  end.'" 

This  brilliant  excuse  for  pushing  aside  a  tried 
and  able  man  that  some  ambitious  aspirant 


36  Silas  Deane 

might  have  his  inning  is   elderly,   and  not   yet 
decayed. 

On  November  26,  1775,  Deane  wrote  his  wife: 

I  am  quite  willing  to  quit  my  station  to  abler  men. 
My  long  and  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  genius 
of  the  Assembly  prevents  my  being  surprised  at  any 
sudden  whim,  or  uneasy  at  any  of  their  resolutions  so 
far  as  they  respect  myself,  individually.  On  a  review 
of  the  part  I  have  acted  on  the  public  theatre  of  life, 
an  examination  of  my  own  genius  and  disposition, 
unfit  for  trimming,  courting,  and  intrigues  with  the 
populace,  I  have  greater  reason  to  wonder  how  I  be 
came  popular  at  all.  What,  therefore,  I  did  not  ex 
pect,  I  have  too  much  philosophy  to  be  in  distress  at 
losing.  I  only  wish  that  my  friends  felt  as  easy  on 
this  occasion  as  I.  I  should  be  sorry  that  you  or  my 
friends  should  manifest  any  uneasiness  on  my  being 
superseded.  One  of  the  greatest  pleasures  I  enjoy 
is  a  consciousness  of  the  rectitude  of  my  intentions 
and  conduct. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  the  Naval  Committee 
was  to  direct  Deane  to  go  at  once  to  New  York, 
buy  a  ship  to  carry  twenty  nine-pounders,  and  a 
sloop  of  ten  guns,  fit  them  out  and  send  them 
through  the  Sound  to  New  London  for  seamen,  and 
to  arm. 

On  December  15,  he  wrote  his  wife:  " Naval 
preparations  are  now  entering  with  spirit,  and 
yesterday  Congress  chose  a  standing  committee 


Delegate  to  Congress  37 

to  superintend  this  department  of  which  I  had 
the  honor  to  be  chosen  one. " 

The  last  letter  from  Congress  was  written 
January  2 1 ,  1 776,  to  his  wife.  He  says : 

Colonel  Dyer  pleaded,  scolded,  fretted,  and  even 
threatened  to  make  me  set  out  for  home  with  him, 
and  parted  in  ill  humor.  It  is  necessary  to  tarry, 
to  close  the  naval  accounts  and  assist  in  getting 
forward  the  preparation  for  the  fleet  in  the  coming 
season. 

Connecticut  had  no  occasion  to  be  ashamed  of 
any  one  of  her  representatives  to  the  first  and 
second  congresses,  but  Deane  had  been  in  train 
ing  for  wider  enterprise  and  a  more  responsible 
task, 


CHAPTER  IV 


DEANE'S  MISSION  TO  FRANCE 


T V  /HEN  it  was  apparent  that  there  was  to  be  a 
*  *  struggle  between  the  colonies  and  England, 
the  question  which  disturbed  every  thoughtful 
man  was,  where  shall  we  get  the  munitions  of 
war?  There  were  no  facilities  here  for  the  manu 
facture  of  guns  and  powder. 

In  one  of  his  early  letters,  Deane  explained  to 
the  committee  how  the  French  made  cannon,  as 
though  the  industry  were  new  to  him  and  to  his 
readers.  The  muskets  first  used  in  the  Revo 
lution  were  of  every  variety :  plain  weapons,  made 
by  village  blacksmiths,  useful  for  killing  bears, 
deer,  wild  cats,  and  Indians.  Agents  went  from 
house  to  house  to  obtain  firearms ;  and  the  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  securing  powder  were  overwhelming. 
After  the  battle  of  Lexington,  it  is  said  that  there 
was  not  powder  enough  in  the  thirteen  colonies  for 
a  week's  fighting,  and  that  English  troops  could 
have  marched  from  Boston  to  Savannah  with 
but  slight  resistance. 

38 


•  ~"/  ™~r"'s. 


Mission  to  France  39 

The  Committee  of  Safety  in  New  York  wrote 
in  July,  1775:  "We  have  no  arms,  we  have  no 
powder,  we  have  no  blankets. " 

Whether  or  not  the  colonies  could  have  won 
their  independence  without  the  aid  of  France  is 
an  interesting  topic  for  conversation  on  the  ver 
anda,  on  a  pleasant  summer  evening,  but  there 
are  facts  which  stand  out  clearly  in  the  Revo 
lution,  and  one  is  that  when  Burgoyne  surrend 
ered  at  Saratoga,  and  such  standing  was  given 
thereby  to  the  continental  cause  that  a  recog 
nition  of  independence  was  made  by  the  French 
Court  on  the  following  February,  the  British 
soldiers,  as  they  laid  down  their  arms,  found 
themselves  surrounded  by  muskets  and  fusils  and 
a  train  of  artillery  which  Silas  Deane  had  sent 
over  from  France. 

When  Cornwallis  surrendered  at  Yorktown, 
the  victory  was  essentially  French.  The  fleet, 
which  was  indispensable,  was  French,  under  the 
lead  of  Admiral  de  Grasse;  the  allied  army  num 
bered  fifteen  thousand  men,  and  after  the  ar 
rival  of  the  French  recruits  who  came  with  the 
fleet,  Lafayette  had  under  his  command  seven 
thousand  French  soldiers.  At  that  time  a  man- 
of-war  carried  a  small  army;  the  entire  strength 
of  the  fleet  was  twenty  thousand  men,  and  the 


40  Silas  Deane 

marines  could  furnish  assistance  for  a  land  at 
tack,  so  that  we  can  say  that  one  half  the  army 
was  French.  Furthermore,  American  soldiers 
were  kept  in  the  ranks  by  French  money. 
Washington  wrote  Morris,  August  17,  that  the 
American  troops  destined  for  the  southern  ser 
vice  must  have  a  month's  pay  in  specie.  Morris 
made  application  to  Count  de  Rochambeau  for  a 
loan  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  The  necessity 
was  so  urgent,  that  Washington's  usual  calmness 
vanished.  He  wrote:  "I  cannot  leave  without 
entreating  you  in  the  warmest  terms  to  send  on  a 
month's  pay  at  least,  with  all  the  expediency 
possible — I  wish  it  to  come  on  the  wings  of 
speed. "  The  French  hard  money  put  the  men  into 
a  proper  temper,  and  the  victory  at  Yorktown  was 
essentially  French. 

What  has  this  to  do  with  the  mission  of  Silas 
Deane  to  France?  Much  every  way.  As  early 
as  September,  1775,  John  Adams  proposed  in 
Congress  that  application  be  made  to  Europe  for 
military  supplies.  He  clearly  saw  that  it  was 
one  thing  to  conduct  an  irregular  warfare  with 
the  Indians,  or  a  long  struggle  with  French  and 
Indians  when  backed  by  British  arsenals,  but 
quite  another  thing  to  face  the  British  Empire, 
armed  with  a  few  matchlocks  bored  by  the  village 


Mission  to  France  41 

blacksmith.  Adams's  proposition  was  rejected. 
"It  was  too  much  for  the  nerves  of  Congress," 
Adams  wrote;  "the  grimaces,  the  convulsions  were 
very  great."  Even  the  almost  infallible  Franklin 
objected  to  a  virgin  state  "suitoring  for  alliances," 
but  events  ripened  fast,  and  on  November  29, 
!775»  a  committee  was  appointed  by  Congress 
called  the  Committee  of  Secret  Correspondence, 
whose  members  were  among  the  most  eminent  and 
trusted  fathers  of  the  Revolution.  The  purpose 
of  the  committee  was  to  ' '  correspond  with  friends 
of  the  colonies  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  other 
parts  of  the  world. "  Provision  was  made  for  de 
fraying  expenses,  and  paying  such  agents  as  the 
committee  might  send. 

The  country  to  which  Congress  naturally  looked 
for  help  was  France,  the  ancient  rival  and  enemy 
of  Great  Britain;  and  the  man  who  was  chosen 
for  a  task,  on  whose  success  the  prosperity  of 
future  campaigns  so  largely  depended,  was  Silas 
Deane.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  repeat  the 
varied  and  well-worn  phrases  of  disparagement 
of  the  object  of  their  choice.  It  is  certainly 
remarkable  that  men  of  the  caliber  of  Franklin, 
Morris,  and  Jay,  who  had  been  intimately  associ 
ated  with  Deane  during  two  terms  of  Con 
gress,  should  have  chosen  a  man  for  such  a  task, 


42  Silas  Deane 

without  the  most  careful  deliberation.  They  knew 
the  difficulties  and  responsibilities  before  their 
agent,  and  the  evidence  of  their  confidence  is  in 
the  following  commission  : 

We,  the  undersigned,  being  the  Committee  of 
Congress  for  Secret  Correspondence,  do  hereby  certify 
whom  it  may  concern  that  the  Bearer,  the  Honorable 
Silas  Deane,  Esquire,  one  of  the  delegates  from  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  is  appointed  by  us  to  and  into 
France,  there  to  transact  such  business,  commercial 
and  political,  as  we  have  committed  to  his  care  in  be 
half  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Congress  of  the 
thirteen  united  colonies.  In  testimony  whereunto 
we  have  set  our  hands  and  seals  at  Philadelphia, 
2  March,  1776. 

B.  FRANKLIN 
BENJ.  HARRISON 
JOHN  DICKINSON 
JOHN  JAY 
ROBERT  MORRIS. 

It  was  no  light  thing  for  Deane  to  leave  his 
wife,  whose  health  was  frail,  whom  he  was  des 
tined  never  to  see  again,  and  to  part  with  his  son 
Jesse,  a  boy  of  ten  years  who  had  never  been 
well,  to  undertake  a  mission  upon  which  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  country  were  fixed,  and  upon 
whose  success  so  much  depended.  That  he  felt 
his  responsibility  appears  from  his  parting  letter 
to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  wrote : 


Mission  to  France  43 

I  have,  in  one  of  the  most  solemn  acts  of  my  life, 
committed  my  son  and  what  I  have  to  your  care,  and 
the  care  of  my  Brother,  confident  that  you  will  be  to 
him  a  real  mother,  which  you  have  ever  been,  and 
guard  his  youth  from  anything  dangerous  and  dis 
honorable.  I  can  but  feel  for  the  pain  I  must  have 
given  you  by  this  adventure.  You  have  in  every 
situation  discharged  your  duty  as  one  of  the  best 
partners  and  wives,  while  on  my  part,  by  a  peculiar 
fatality  attending  me  from  my  first  entry  into  public 
life,  I  have  ever  been  involved  in  one  scheme  after 
another  so  as  to  keep  my  mind  in  constant  agitation, 
and  my  attention  fixed  on  other  objects  than  my  own 
immediate  interests. 

The  present  object  is  great :  I  am  about  to  enter  on 
the  great  state  of  Europe,  and  the  consideration  of 
getting  myself  well  established  weighs  me  down,  with 
out  the  addition  of  more  tender  scenes ;  but  I  am 

"  Safe  in  the  hand  of  the  protecting  Power, 
Who  ruled  my  natal,  and  must  fix  my  mortal  hour.'* 

It  matters  but  little,  my  dear,  what  part  we  act  or 
where,  if  we  only  act  it  well.  I  wish  as  much  as  any 
man  for  the  enjoyment  of  domestic  ease,  peace,  and 
society,  but  I  am  forbid  experience  in  them  soon; 
indeed,  it  must  be  criminal  in  my  own  eyes,  did  I 
balance  them  one  moment  in  opposition  to  the  public 
good,  and  the  call  of  my  country. 

I  hope  to  sail  on  Tuesday.  May  God  Almighty 
protect  you  safe  through  the  vicissitudes  of  time. 

Deane  set  out  on  his  journey  early  in  March, 
1776;  sailing  by  the  Bermudas  and  landing  in 


44  Silas  Deane 

Spain,  he  escaped  the  British  cruisers.  He  made 
his  way  over  the  Pyrenees,  and  after  visiting 
several  French  cities,  he  arrived  in  Paris  early  in 
July.  He  entered  upon  his  mission  with  caution 
and  some  embarrassment.  Beaumarchais  wrote: 
"M.  Deane  does  not  open  his  mouth  before  the 
English-speaking  people  he  meets.  He  must  be 
the  most  silent  man  in  France,  for  I  defy  him  to 
say  six  consecutive  words  in  French." 

If  Deane  was  poorly  supplied  with  French, 
he  was  well  equipped  with  good  advice.  "On 
your  arrival  in  France,"  began  the  letter  from 
the  committee  of  March  3,  1776, 

you  will  for  some  time  be  engaged  in  the  business  of 
providing  goods  for  the  Indian  trade.  This  will  give 
you  good  countenance  to  your  appearing  in  the 
character  of  a  merchant,  which  we  wish  you  to  retain 
among  the  French  in  general,  it  being  probable  that 
the  Court  of  France  may  not  like  it  should  be  known 
publicly  that  any  agent  of  the  colonies  is  in  that 
country'.  When  you  come  to  Paris,  by  delivering 
Dr.  Franklin's  letters  to  M.  LeRay  at  the  Louvre, 
and  M.  Dubourg,  you  will  be  introduced  to  a  set  of 
acquaintances,  all  friends  to  America.  By  conversing 
with  them  you  will  have  a  good  opportunity  of  ac 
quiring  Parisian  French,  and  you  will  find  in  M. 
Dubourg  a  man  prudent,  faithful,  secret,  intelli 
gent  in  affairs,  and  capable  of  giving  you  very  safe 
advice. 


Mission  to  France  45 

Thus  the  Wethersfield  merchant  was  set  adrift 
in  the  gay  capital  of  Louis  XVI,  with  the  task  of 
learning  a  new  language,  the  customs  and  ways  of 
a  community  decidedly  different  from  that  with 
which  he  had  been  accustomed,  and  also  of 
securing  goods  indispensable  to  the  cause  of  the 
patriots. 

He  was  to  hold  out  to  France  the  prize  of  our 
commerce  and  to  say: 

If  we  should,  as  there  is  a  great  appearance  we  shall, 
come  to  a  total  separation  from  Great  Britain,  France 
would  be  looked  upon  as  the  power  whose  friendship 
it  would  be  fittest  for  us  to  obtain  and  cultivate.  The 
commercial  advantages  Britain  had  enjoyed  with  the 
colonies  had  contributed  greatly  to  her  late  wealth  and 
importance.  It  is  likely  a  great  part  of  our  commerce 
will  naturally  fall  to  the  share  of  France,  especially 
if  she  favors  us  in  this  application,  as  that  will  be 
a  means  of  gaining  and  securing  the  friendship  of  the 
colonies;  and  that,  as  our  trade  is  rapidly  increasing 
with  our  increase  of  people,  and  in  a  greater  pro 
portion,  her  part  of  it  will  be  extremely  valuable. 

These  brilliant  prospects  were  not  fulfilled. 
For  years  French  merchants  gained  more  bank 
ruptcy  than  profit  from  the  American  trade,  but 
it  is  well  to  put  the  best  foot  forward,  and  in  a 
letter  from  the  Secret  Committee  of  October  i, 
1776,  we  read: 


46  Silas  Deane 

If  France  will  join  us,  in  time  there  is  no  danger  but 
the  Americans  will  soon  be  established  as  an  Independ 
ent  Empire,  and  France,  drawing  from  her  the  princi 
pal  part  of  those  sources  of  wealth  and  power  which 
formerly  flowed  into  Great  Britain,  will  immediately 
become  the  greatest  power  in  Europe. 

If  Franklin,  chairman  of  the  committee,  wrote 
these  alluring  sentences  he  must  have  been  pretty 
thoroughly  converted  to  the  advantages  of  the 
"virgin  suitoring"  in  Europe. 

The  demands  were  not  modest  either. 

The  supply  we  at  present  want  [they  wrote]  is 
clothing  and  arms  for  twenty-five  thousand  men,  with 
a  suitable  quantity  of  ammunition  and  a  hundred 
field-pieces ;  and  that  besides,  we  want  great  quanti 
ties  of  linens  and  woolens  with  other  articles  for  the 
Indian  trade,  and  that  the  whole,  if  France  should 
grant  the  other  supplies,  would  make  a  cargo  which  it 
might  be  well  to  secure  by  a  convoy  of  two  or  three 
ships  of  war. 

The  payment  for  these  stores  is  rather  vaguely 
hinted  at:  for  the  linens,  woolens,  and  goods  for 
the  Indian  trade  he  was  to  ask  no  credit ;  and  how 
this  Connecticut  Yankee  was  to  be  magician 
enough  to  stretch  his  little  store  of  money,  most 
of  which  was  in  bills,  which  were  afterward  re 
turned  protested,  to  cover  so  large  a  purchase,  it  is 


Mission  to  France  47 

hard  to  understand,  and  a  good  many  of  them 
have  not  been  paid  for  yet. 

As  for  the  military  supplies  he  was  to  say: 
"We  mean  to  pay  for  the  same  by  remittances  to 
France  or  through  Spain,  Portugal,  or  the  French 
islands,  as  soon  as  our  navigation  can  be  protected 
by  ourselves  or  France."  This  cheerful  infor 
mation  demanded  friends  both  optimistic  and 
altruistic. 

Deane's  programme  was  carefully  laid  out, 
and  the  words  he  was  to  convert  into  "Parisian 
French"  were  put  into  his  mouth: 

If  you  should  find  Vergennes  reserved,  and  not  in 
clined  to  enter  into  free  conversation  with  you,  it 
may  be  well  to  shorten  your  visit,  request  him  to  con 
sider  what  you  have  proposed,  acquaint  him  with  your 
place  of  lodging,  that  you  may  stay  some  time  at 
Paris,  and  that  knowing  how  precious  his  time  is,  you 
do  not  presume  to  ask  another  audience,  but  that  if 
he  should  have  any  communication  for  you,  you  will 
upon  the  least  notice  immediately  wait  on  him.  If  at 
a  future  conference  he  should  be  more  free,  and  find 
a  disposition  to  favor  the  colonies,  it  may  be  proper 
to  acquaint  him  that  they  must  necessarily  be 
anxious  to  know  the  disposition  of  France  in  certain 
points,  which,  with  his  permission,  you  will  mention, 
such  as  whether,  if  the  colonies  should  be  forced 
to  form  themselves  into  an  independent  state, 
France  would  probably  acknowledge  them  as  such, 
receive  their  ambassador,  enter  into  any  treaty  or 


48  Silas  Deane 

alliance  with  them,  for  commerce,  or  defense,  or 
both. 

It  is  clear  that  Franklin,  Jay,  and  Morris  had  a 
high  opinion  of  the  good  judgment  and  diplo 
matic  skill  of  their  agent,  for  he  was  not  only  to 
secure  supplies,  without  which  the  war  could  not 
be  prosecuted,  and  do  it  mainly  with  promises, 
and  get  the  supplies  past  the  watchful  English 
men-of-war  to  America,  but  he  was  also  to  be  the 
entering  wedge  for  a  treaty  between  the  old  world 
empire  and  the  new  republic. 

In  further  conferences  he  was  to  enlarge  on  these 
topics,  and  defend  the  colonies  against  all  calum 
nies.  The  committee  adds : 

When  your  business  in  France  admits  of  it,  it  may  be 
well  to  go  into  Holland  and  visit  our  agent  there, 
M.  Dumas,  conferring  with  him  on  subjects  that  may 
promote  our  interest,  and  our  means  of  communi 
cation.  You  will  endeavor  to  procure  a  meeting 
with  Mr.  Bancroft  near  London,  and  desiring  him  to 
come  over  to  him  in  France  or  Holland  on  the  score 
of  old  acquaintance.  From  him  you  may  obtain  a 
good  deal  of  information  of  what  is  now  going  on  in 
England.  It  may  be  well  to  remit  him  a  small  bill 
to  defray  his  expenses  in  coming  to  you,  and  avoid 
all  political  matters  in  your  letters  to  him. 

It  was  a  narrow  path  in  which  the  inexperienced 
commissioner  was  to  walk.  Alas,  that  the  lane  had 


Mission  to  France  49 

such  turning  as  is  suggested  by  the  sentence  which 
follows:  "You  will  also  endeavor  to  correspond 
with  Mr.  Arthur  Lee,  agent  of  the  colonies  in 
London." 

On  July  17,  Deane  was  presented  to  the  Minister 
of  French  Affairs,  M.  Vergennes,  whose  chief 
secretary  spoke  English  well,  and  the  interview 
lasted  two  hours.  Many  questions  were  asked  on 
both  sides :  the  French,  eager  to  know  more  about 
the  colonies ;  Deane,  anxious  to  learn  how  the  con 
templated  Declaration  of  Independence  would  be 
received  in  Europe. 

Vergennes  explained  that  since  there  was  a  good 
understanding  between  Versailles  and  London, 
France  could  not  openly  encourage  the  shipping 
of  warlike  stores,  but  no  obstruction  of  any  kind 
would  be  given;  that  Deane  was  to  have  a  free 
hand  to  carry  on  any  kind  of  commerce  in  the 
kingdom  under  the  protection  of  the  police  and 
Vergennes,  and  he  would  do  well  to  avoid  all  Eng 
lishmen  as  far  as  possible,  as  the  British  ambas 
sador  was  on  the  watch.  In  reply  to  Deane's 
rose-colored  prospects  for  trade,  Vergennes  con 
descended  to  reply:  "The  people  and  their  cause 
are  very  respectable  in  the  eyes  of  disinterested 
persons,  and  the  interview  has  been  agreeable." 

Deane  soon  learned  that  in  a  late  reform  of  the 


50  Silas  Deane 

French  army  they  had  shifted  their  arms  to  those 
of  a  lighter  kind;  the  heavy  ones,  most  of  which 
were  the  same  as  new,  to  the  number  of  seventy 
or  eighty  thousand,  lay  useless  in  magazines,  with 
other  military  stores  in  some  such  proportion,  and 
that  it  would  be  possible  to  get  a  supply  of  these 
through  some  merchant,  without  the  Ministry 
being  concerned  in  the  affair. 

Then  came  the  tug ;  with  four  thousand  pounds, 
and  vague  promises,  Deane  was  to  buy  shiploads 
of  merchandise,  transport  it  to  the  seaboard,— 
in  some  instances  two  hundred  miles, — provide 
vessels,  and  get  them  past  the  watchful  British 
cruisers. 

On  August  1 6,  he  writes  to  the  Committee  of 
Correspondence : 

Were  it  possible,  I  would  attempt  to  paint  to  you 
the  heartrending  anxiety  I  have  suffered  in  this  time 
through  a  total  want  of  intelligence;  my  arrival  here, 
my  name,  my  lodgings,  and  many  other  particulars 
have  been  reported  to  the  British  Administration,  on 
which  they  sent  orders  to  the  British  ambassador  to 
remonstrate  in  high  terms,  and  to  enforce  their  re 
monstrance  they  despatched  Wedderburn  from  Lon 
don  and  Lord  Rochford  from  Holland  as  persons  of 
great  interest  and  address  here  to  counteract  me. 
They  have  been  some  time  here,  and  the  city  swarms 
with  Englishmen,  and  as  money  purchases  everything 
in  this  country,  I  have  had,  and  still  have,  a  most 


Mission  to  France  51 

difficult  task  to  avoid  their  machinations.  Not  a 
coffee-house  or  theatre  or  other  place  of  public  diver 
sion  but  swarms  with  their  emissaries.  I  have  seen 
many  more  of  the  persons  in  power,  and  had  long  con 
versations  with  them;  their  intentions  are  good,  and 
they  appear  convinced,  but  there  is  wanting  a  great 
and  daring  genius  at  their  head,  which  the  Count 
Maurepas  is  far  from  being. 

I  must  again  remind  you  of  my  situation  here:  the 
bills  designed  for  my  use  are  protested,  and  expenses 
rising  fast  in  consequence  of  the  business  on  my 
hands.  The  quantity  of  stores  to  be  shipped  will 
amount  to  a  large  sum ;  the  very  charge  on  them  will 
be  great,  for  which  I  am  the  only  responsible  person. 

Burdened  as  he  was  with  care,  Deane  was  full 
of  courage  and  hope  for  the  colonies,  and  through 
the  summer  and  autumn  of  1776  he  devoted 
himself  to  his  mission. 


CHAPTER  V 

DEANE,  VERGENNES,  AND  BEAUMARCHAIS 

IN  his  early  negotiations  in  France,  Deane  was 
*  embarrassed  by  highly  recommended  friends, 
to  whom  he  was  to  apply.  When  Franklin  was 
in  Paris  years  before,  he  had  become  acquainted 
with  a  Dr.  Dubourg,  who  translated  some  of 
Franklin's  writings  into  French,  and  manifested  an 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  America.  Dubourg  sent 
long  letters  to  Congress,  assuring  it  of  the  readi 
ness  of  France  to  assist  the  Americans ;  and  when 
Deane,  a  stranger,  reached  the  brilliant  capital, 
he  availed  himself  of  his  letter  from  Franklin  to  a 
man  described  as  "prudent,  faithful,  secret,  in 
telligent  in  affairs,  and  capable  of  giving  very  sage 
advice." 

"I  waited  on  M.  Dubourg  and  delivered  him 
Dr.  Franklin's  letter,"  Deane  wrote,  "which  gave 
the  good  gentleman  the  most  sincere  and  real 
pleasure." 

Dubourg  was  only  too  willing  to  help;  he  had 
been  interested  in  securing  supplies  for  the  colonies, 

52 


Harassed  in  Europe  53 

and  he  wished  to  be  the  intermediary  between 
Deane  and  the  French  Ministry.  Deane  soon 
saw  that  he  was  too  officious  and  indiscreet  to 
be  intrusted  with  important  business.  Dubourg 
talked  too  much  about  plans  to  assist  America  to 
suit  Vergennes,  who  wished  to  have  the  govern 
ment  completely  in  the  background. 

Beaumarchais  wrote  the  minister:  "If  while 
we  close  the  door  on  one  side,  the  window  is  open 
on  the  other,  surely  the  secret  will  escape.  Sil 
ence  must  be  imposed  on  these  babblers,  who  can 
do  nothing  themselves,  and  who  hinder  those  who 
can  do  something." 

In  August,  Deane  was  informed  by  Gerard,  the 
first  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  that  he  could 
rely  on  whatever  Beaumarchais  should  engage  in 
commercial  supplies.  In  vain  Dubourg  remon-  * 
strated  against  the  decision,  the  programme  was 
settled,  the  French  government  was  willing  to 
open  its  arsenals  to  help  America,  but  the  aid  was 
to  be  given  through  the  agency  and  bookkeeping  of 
the  fictitious  house  of  Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co., 
the  head  of  which  was  Car  on  de  Beaumarchais. 

One  would  suppose  that  the  French  govern 
ment  would  have  chosen  a  merchant  or  speculator 
for  the  task,  rather  than  an  author,  who,  Dubourg 
bitterly  said,  was  famous  for  large  promises  and  for 


54  Silas  Deane 

his  carelessness  in  money  matters;  but  the  result 
proved  the  wisdom  of  the  choice,  though  it  ruined 
the  brilliant  and  devoted  friend  of  the  colonies. 

The  famous  author  of  Figaro  was  born  in  1732, 
in  the  shop  of  his  father,  Caron,  a  jeweller  in  the 
rue  St.  Denis.  At  twenty,  he  invented  an  im 
provement  in  the  escapement  in  watches,  and 
soon  styled  himself  "Watchmaker  of  the  King." 
By  selling  watches  to  courtiers  at  Versailles,  and 
jostling  against  nobles  and  officials,  he  got  together 
money  enough  to  buy  a  little  office,  that  of  Con 
troller  of  the  Pantry  of  the  King's  Household,  and 
he  marched  with  the  procession  that  carried  the 
meat  to  the  royal  table;  and  he  had  the  honor 
of  placing  some  of  the  dishes  before  the  king  with 
his  own  hands;  and  then  he  stood  watching  the 
repast,  with  sword  at  his  side.  His  next  step 
upward  was  to  marry  a  widow,  a  lady  older  than 
himself,  and  wealthy;  and  he  took  the  name  of 
Beaumarchais  from  a  small  fief  belonging  to  his 
wife. 

In  1761,  M.  de  Beaumarchais,  as  he  was  now 
called,  bought  for  eighty-five  thousand  livres  an 
office  of  Secretary  to  the  King,  which  imposed  no 
duties,  but  conferred  the  rank  of  nobility.  When 
taunted  with  being  a  plebeian,  he  replied  that  he 
could  easily  prove  his  nobility,  for  he  held  the 


Harassed  in  Europe  55 

parchment  that  conferred  it,  and  a  receipt  for  the 
money  that  paid  for  it.  That  parchment  did  not 
destroy  his  democratic  sympathy  with  his  brothers 
in  America,  who  were  struggling  against  tyranny; 
and  the  author  of  Le  Mariage  de  Figaro  or 
ganized  concerts,  dipped  into  speculation,  plunged 
into  law,  visited  England,  where  he  first  became 
interested  in  American  affairs  through  conversa 
tions  with  men  prominent  in  opposition  to  Lord 
North. 

Arthur  Lee,  a  member  of  the  Lee  family  of 
Virginia,  was  then  studying  law  at  the  Temple. 
He,  too,  was  as  gifted  a  talker  as  Beaumarchais, 
and  when  the  two  men  came  together,  the  atmos 
phere  was  flavored  and  tinged  with  roses.  We 
can  hardly  imagine  that  either  believed  all  that 
the  other  said  about  his  respective  people,  but 
Beaumarchais  came  to  believe  that  the  American 
insurgents  were  of  surpassing  power,  and  Lee  was 
convinced  that  France  would  help  the  colonists 
to  the  limit  of  her  strength. 

Arthur  Lee  reported  to  Virginia  that  France 
would  furnish  five  million  livres'  worth  of  arms 
and  ammunition  to  the  United  States.  This  pro 
duct  of  Lee's  imagination  and  reckless  tongue 
made  no  end  of  trouble. 

Beaumarchais   returned   to   Paris   enthusiastic 


56  Silas  Deane 

in  the  cause  of  America,  and  suggested  to  the 
French  government  the  advisability  of  lending 
aid  to  the  colonies.  In  September,  1775,  he 
submitted  to  the  king  a  memoir,  in  which  he 
predicted  the  triumph  of  America. 

Durand,  in  New  Materials  on  the  American 
Revolution,  says  that  Beaumarchais  told  Lee, 
in  1775,  that  he  was  trying  to  persuade  Louis 
XVI,  and  Lee  wrote  the  Secret  Committee  that 
in  consequence  of  his  active  procedure  with  the 
French  ambassador  at  London,  "the  Count  de 
Vergennes  has  sent  a  secret  agent  to  inform  me 
that  France  could  not  think  of  going  to  war  with 
England,  but  he  is  ready  to  send  five  million  livres 
in  arms  and  munitions  of  war,  by  way  of  St. 
Domingo,  to  the  United  States.*' 

Not  one  word  of  this  was  true.  Vergennes  had 
not  only  not  sent  an  agent  to  Arthur  Lee,  but 
Beaumarchais'  frequent  applications  to  the  minis 
ter  for  secret  aid  in  the  shape  of  money  and  arms 
had  been  and  were  steadily  refused.  Not  until 
months  afterward  was  Vergennes  ready. 

On  returning  to  Paris,  Beaumarchais  corre 
sponded  with  Lee  and,  June  12,  1776,  he  wrote: 
"The  difficulties  I  have  found  in  my  negotiations 
with  the  minister  have  determined  me  to  form  a 
company,  which  will  enable  munitions  and  powder 


Harassed  in  Europe  57 

to  be  transmitted  to  your  friend  (Congress)  on 
condition  of  his  returning  tobacco  to  St.  Francis. " 

The  youthful  Louis  XVI  was  not  easily  con 
vinced,  and  if  the  advice  of  Turgot,  the  greatest 
statesman  of  France,  had  been  followed,  America 
would  have  received  no  encouragement.  Turgot, 
who  was  Minister  of  Finance  for  two  years  from 
the  summer  of  1774,  urged  neutrality,  retrench 
ment,  reform,  and  the  quiet  development  of 
France,  wasted  by  the  fearful  Seven  Years'  War. 

Maurepas,  the  aged  head  of  the  Cabinet,  was 
without  vigor,  but  Vergennes,  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  adopted  the  cause  of  the  colonies. 
Though  a  cold,  calculating  man,  he  was  the  most 
powerful  friend  America  had  in  Europe  through 
the  war. 

As  a  statesman,  Vergennes  was  not  in  the  same 
class  as  Turgot,  but  he  was  a  man  of  decided 
ability.  The  Due  de  Choiseul,  Prime  Minister 
of  Louis  XV,  said  of  Vergennes :  "The  Compte  de 
Vergennes  has  something  to  say  against  whatever 
is  proposed  to  him,  but  he  never  finds  any  diffi 
culty  in  carrying  out  his  instructions.  Were  we  to 
order  him  to  send  us  the  vizier's  head,  he  would 
write  that  it  was  dangerous,  but  the  head  would 
come." 

This  powerful  friend  of  America,  more  than  any 


58  Silas  Deane 

one  else,  brought  the  king  to  our  side,  though, 
Sparks  says,  it  was  largely  due  to  Beaumarchais 
that  the  king  was  persuaded.  On  December 
7,  1775,  Beaumarchais  wrote  a  letter,  which  was 
given  to  Louis  XVI  by  Vergennes,  urging  him  to 
assist  the  United  States.  That  letter  is  said  to 
have  turned  the  scale. 

Vergennes  was  neither  a  courtier  nor  a  selfishly 
ambitious  man:  his  habits  were  simple,  clear 
headed,  and  trustworthy.  Jefferson  says :  "  I  found 
him  as  honorable,  as  frank,  as  easy  of  access  to 
reason  as  any  man  I  have  ever  done  business  with. " 

Said  James  Madison :  "  He  is  the  great  minister 
of  European  affairs,  cool,  reserved  in  political  con 
versation,  free  and  familiar  on  other  subjects. " 

Vergennes  believed  that  the  loss  of  the  colonies 
would  so  seriously  cripple  England  that  she  could 
no  longer  disturb  France.  He  also  felt  the  wave 
of  republicanism  which  was  sweeping  over  France 
in  sympathy  with  the  insurgent  spirit  across  the 
Atlantic.  He  likewise  believed  that  the  independ 
ence  of  the  colonies  would  greatly  advance  the 
commerce  of  France. 

When  the  ice  in  Vergennes  did  not  take  fire  on 
the  reception  of  Beaumarchais'  memorial,  the 
impetuous  dramatist  wrote  again  on  the  following 
day,  complaining  that  the  Council  had  taken  no 


Harassed  in  Europe  59 

action.  "All  the  wisdom  of  the  world,"  he 
wrote,  "will  not  enable  a  man  to  decide  on  the 
policy  he  should  pursue  if  he  receives  no  answers 
to  his  letters.  Am  I  an  agent  who  may  prove  use 
ful  to  this  country,  or  am  I  a  deaf  and  dumb 
traveler?" 

In  December,  he  addressed  another  long  memo 
rial  to  his  sovereign,  who  had  maintained  silence. 
He  insisted  that  Louis  owed  it  to  his  people  to 
weaken  their  ancient  foe,  and  ended  his  harangue 
with  the  pious  prayer,  "May  the  guardian  angel 
of  the  state  incline  the  heart  and  mind  of  your 
Majesty. " 

Two  months  later,  he  sent  another  long  com 
munication  to  the  crown,  declaring  that  the  quarrel 
between  England  and  America  would  divide  the 
world  and  change  the  system  of  Europe,  and 
every  person  should  consider  how  the  impending 
separation  would  work  for  his  own  gain  or  loss. 

This  letter  discloses  the  hand  of  the  scheming 
Arthur  Lee : 

A  secret  representative  of  the  colonies  in  London, 
discouraged  by  the  failure  of  his  efforts  through  me 
to  obtain  from  the  French  ministers  supplies  of 
powder  and  munitions  of  war,  said  to-day:  "Has 
France  absolutely  decided  to  refuse  us  all  succor, 
and  thus  become  the  victim  of  England  and  the 
laughing-stock  of  Europe?  We  offer  France  in  return 


60  Silas  Deane 

for  secret  assistance  a  treaty  of  commerce,  which 
will  secure  to  her  for  a  number  of  years  after  the  peace 
all  the  benefits  which  for  a  century  have  enriched 
England." 

Beaumarchais  proposed  to  the  king  the  scheme 
of  which  he  spoke  to  Arthur  Lee,  a  scheme  by 
which  France  could  aid  the  colonies  and  not  be 
come  involved  in  war  with  England.  He  said: 
"  If  your  Majesty  has  not  a  better  man  to  employ, 
I  will  undertake  the  enterprise  and  no  one  shall 
be  compromised.  My  zeal  will  better  supply  my 
lack  of  capacity,  than  the  ability  of  another  could 
replace  my  zeal.'1  The  plan  was  acceptable  to 
Vergennes,  who  in  May  wrote  to  the  French 
ambassador  at  Madrid  that  the  king  had  decided 
to  lend  the  Americans  a  million  livres,  though 
he  would  hardly  venture  to  furnish  arms  and 
munitions  of  war;  and  it  would  be  done  in  the 
name  of  a  commercial  firm,  which  would  color 
its  zeal  by  the  appearance  of  a  desire  to  engage  in 
the  American  trade. 

The  prospect  of  repayment  was  slender,  for  the 
company  would  furnish  securities — "to  tell  the 
truth,  not  very  binding. " 

The  Spanish  king  promised  to  send  another 
million  livres. 

With    the    powerful    backing    of    Vergennes, 


Harassed  in  Europe  61 

Beaumarchais  formed  his  imaginary  house  of 
Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co.,  and  through  the 
Spanish,  high-sounding,  mythical  firm,  supplies 
were  forwarded  from  the  French  arsenals  to  the 
insurgents  in  America. 

To  supply  money  above  that  furnished  by  the 
state,  Beaumarchais  planned  a  speculation  on  his 
own  account,  which  might  prove  profitable,  if  his 
ships  were  not  captured  by  the  English,  and  he 
could  get  his  pay. 

On  June  10,  1776,  the  French  government 
advanced  a  million  livres,  and  Beaumarchais 
executed  the  receipt,  and  two  months  later  an 
other  million  arrived  from  Spain. 

Early  in  July,  a  new  actor  appeared  in  Paris, 
Silas  Deane,  with  a  commission  from  Congress  to 
purchase  supplies  to  be  paid  for  by  cargoes  shipped 
from  the  colonies.  On  applying  to  Vergennes,  he 
was  referred  to  Beaumarchais,  who  offered  to  ship 
merchandise  to  the  credit  of  Congress  to  the 
amount  of  three  million  livres. 

Deane  wrote  Franklin  and  Morris  on  August  15 : 

I  find  M.  Beaumarchais,  as  I  before  hinted,  possesses 
the  entire  confidence  of  the  Ministry;  he  is  a  man  of 
wit  and  genius,  and  a  considerable  writer  on  comic 
and  political  subjects;  all  my  supplies  are  to  come 
through  his  hands. 


62  Silas  Deane 

On  August  1 8,  1776,  Beaumarchais  wrote  the 
Committee  of  Congress : 

An  extensive  commercial  house  has  been  formed 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  serving  you  in  Europe,  to 
supply  you  with  necessaries  of  every  sort,  clothes,  linen, 
powder,  ammunition,  muskets,  cannon,  or  even  gold 
for  the  payment  of  your  troops,  and  in  general  every 
thing  that  can  be  useful  for  the  honorable  war  in 
which  you  are  engaged. 

He  gives  them  to  understand  that  return  must  be 
made.  He  says:  "  I  request  of  you,  gentlemen,  to 
send  me  next  spring  ten  or  twelve  thousand  hogs 
heads,  or  more  if  you  can,  of  tobacco  from  Virginia 
of  the  best  quality."  He  also  suggests  that  he 
could  handle  cargoes  of  salted  fish. 

Lee's  officious  and  imaginative  talk  about  the 
supplies  being  a  gift  made  a  deeper  impression  on 
Congress  than  Deane's  and  Beaumarchais'  appeal 
for  payment,  and  the  Secret  Committee  never  sent 
any  reply  to  Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co.,  though 
they  received  the  supplies,  and  put  off  paying  the 
unlucky  firm. 

In  February,  Beaumarchais  sent  a  letter  to  the 
king,  in  which  he  showed  that  if  a  million  livres 
could  be  furnished  Hortalez  &  Co.,  and  tobacco 
be  promptly  received  in  payment  and  sold  at 
Beaumarchais'  romancing  prices,  by  the  time  the 


Harassed  in  Europe  63 

king  had  invested  a  second  time  the  profits  of 
the  scheme,  the  Americans  would  receive  two 
millions  in  gold  and  seven  millions  in  powder  and 
this  would  increase  in  geometrical  proportion,  using 
three  as  the  multiple. 

The  lago  in  all  this  mixture  of  confusion  and 
depravity  was  Arthur  Lee,  the  political  enemy 
of  Beaumarchais  and  Deane,  who  was  determined 
to  advance  himself,  though  he  ruined  every  one 
who  stood  in  his  way. 

When  Deane  arrived  in  Paris,  and  Beau 
marchais  no  longer  communicated  with  Arthur 
Lee, 

The  latter  [says  Sparks]  was  disappointed  and  en 
raged  against  Deane,  no  less  than  against  Beaumar 
chais.  To  avenge  himself  on  both,  Lee  wrote  the 
Committee  of  Congress  that  the  two  men  had  agreed 
to  deceive  at  once  the  French  and  the  American 
governments,  by  changing  what  the  French  minister 
meant  to  be  a  gratuitive  present  into  a  commercial 
operation. 

De  Lomenie  says  he  has  found  among  Beau 
marchais'  papers  proofs  that  the  shipments  were 
carefully  inspected  by  American  agents,  and 
Deane  and  Beaumarchais  were  surprised  that 
Virginia  and  Maryland  tobacco  did  not  arrive. 
Neither  took  account  of  Arthur  Lee. 

The  headquarters  of  the  flourishing   and  ill- 


64  Silas  Deane 

starred  firm  of  Roderique  &  Co.  were  in  the 
Faubourg  du  Temple,  in  a  large  house  in  which  the 
Dutch  ambassadors  had  lived.  Many  clerks  were 
installed  there,  and  the  author  of  Figaro  was  to 
be  found  there  early  and  late,  overseeing  the 
activity  of  the  clerks  with  energy,  if  not  with 
business  methods. 

One  would  not  use  the  term  "  hard-headed  "  in 
speaking  of  a  merchant  who  wrote  in  business 
letters  such  sentences  as  these  : 

Your  deputies,  gentlemen,  can  find  in  me  a  sure 
friend,  and  asylum  in  my  house,  money  in  my  coffers, 
and  any  means  of  facilitating  their  operations.  I 
promise  you  that  my  indefatigable  zeal  shall  never 
be  wanting  to  clear  up  difficulties,  soften  prohibitions, 
and  facilitate  the  operations  of  a  commerce  which 
your  advantage,  more  than  my  own,  has  made  me 
undertake. 

Of  the  activities  of  Beaumarchais,  we  shall  speak 
more  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter.  We  wish  we 
were  not  obliged  to  record  the  sequel  to  this  al 
truistic  and  enthusiastic  endeavor.  No  tobacco 
was  sent  by  the  colonies  to  the  Hortalez  firm. 
Its  agents  at  Nantes  and  Boulogne  strained  their 
eyes  to  see  the  ships,  with  thousands  of  hogs 
heads  of  the  best  Virginia  tobacco,  coming  up 
the  harbor.  Beaumarchais  received  not  even 


Harassed  in  Europe  65 

a  letter  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  sup 
plies.  In  October,  he  wrote:  " There  is  no  news 
from  America  and  no  tobacco  either.  This  is 
depressing,  but  depression  is  a  long  way  from 
discouragement . ' ' 

The  mischievous  and  pernicious  activity  of 
Arthur  Lee  was  bearing  fruit.  Lee,  who  seemed 
incapable  of  telling  the  truth,  kept  writing  Con 
gress  that  the  munitions  of  war  were  not  to  be 
paid  for.  "M.  Vergennes, "  he  wrote,  "has  re 
peatedly  assured  us  that  no  return  was  expected 
for  the  cargo  sent  by  Beaumarchais.  This  gentle 
man  is  not  a  merchant ;  he  is  known  to  be  a  politi 
cal  agent  employed  by  the  Court  of  France." 

Even  if  France  had  advanced  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  the  supplies  sent  by  Beau 
marchais  amounted  to  several  times  that  amount ; 
and  when  Lee  said  the  supplies  were  a  gift  of 
France,  he  lied  and  he  knew  it,  and  he  knew  also 
that  when  he  suggested  that  the  demands  of 
Beaumarchais  and  Deane  would  fill  their  pockets 
with  illegal  gains,  his  lies  were  still  more  fiendish, 
for  he  was  plotting  the  ruin  of  two  honest  and 
devoted  men,  whose  earnestness  and  fidelity  his 
miserable  soul  could  not  appreciate. 

Congress  was  perplexed  and,  being  short  of 
funds,  did  nothing.  It  is  hard  enough  to  pay 


66  Silas  Deane 

one's  honest  debts  out  of  a  full  pocket;  the  pay 
ment  of  a  questionable  claim  causes  a  beggar 
little  worry. 

Franklin  had  little  confidence  in  the  Roderique, 
Hortalez  &  Co.,  and  declared  to  Deane  that  he 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  transactions 
arranged  before  his  arrival.  When  Coudray, 
on  reaching  America,  was  furious  against  Beau- 
marchais,  Congress  was  puzzled. 

Imagine  [says  De  Lomenie]  the  effect  on  sober 
Yankees,  nearly  all  of  whom  had  taken  part  in  com 
mercial  transactions  before  the  war,  receiving  cargoes 
almost  always  shipped  clandestinely  in  the  night, 
with  invoices  more  or  less  correct,  and  the  whole,  with 
no  other  advices  than  the  somewhat  hasty  missives 
over  the  romantic  signature  of  Roderique  &  Co.  in 
which  Beaumarchais  mingled  together  enthusiastic 
protestations,  an  unlimited  tender  of  services,  politi 
cal  advice,  and  demands  for  tobacco  and  codfish. 

Shrewd  Yankees  were  naturally  led  to  think  that 
such  a  person,  so  ardent  and  fantastic,  if  he  really 
existed,  was  playing  a  commercial  comedy,  un 
derstood  between  him  and  the  French  authorities, 
and  that  they  might  use  his  supplies,  read  his 
amplifications,  and  dispense  with  sending  tobacco. 
The  brilliant  firm  of  Hortalez  &  Co.  was  in  dire 
straits.  Beaumarchais  extracted  another  million 
from  the  depleted  French  treasury,  but  that  did 


Harassed  in  Europe  67 

not  cover  the  bill.  Beaumarchais  wrote  re 
peatedly  for  payment  in  tobacco,  indigo,  anything. 
Arthur  Lee  kept  repeating  his  rascally  lies,  assur 
ing  Congress  that  the  demands  were  parts  of  a 
French  comedy,  or  attempts  to  cheat  Congress, 
and  defeat  the  generous  programme  of  Louis.  At 
last,  a  cargo  of  rice  and  indigo  reached  France, 
which  the  envoys  said  was  intended  for  them,  but 
Beaumarchais  begged  so  hard,  he  secured  it, 
though  it  was  worth  but  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  livres 

You  will  see  [he  wrote  his  agent  in  America]  that 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  this  drop  of  water 
and  the  ocean  of  my  debts.  I  am  contending  with 
obstacles  of  every  nature,  but  I  struggle  with  all  my 
might,  and  I  hope  to  conquer  with  patience,  credit,  and 
money.  The  enormous  losses  to  which  all  this  puts 
me  appears  to  affect  no  one.  The  minister  is  inflexible; 
even  the  deputies  at  Passy  claim  the  honor  of  annoy 
ing  me — me,  the  best  friend  of  their  country. 

In  December,  1777,  Beaumarchais  sent  M. 
Francy  to  America  to  see  if  he  could  get  a  settle 
ment  of  past  accounts.  "Be  like  me, "  he  charged 
him;  "despise  small  considerations  and  small 
resentments ;  I  have  enlisted  you  in  a  magnificent 
cause." 

As  the  result  of  Francy's  journey  the  treasuries 
were  put  on  a  surer  basis — at  least,  on  paper. 


68  Silas  Deane 

A  carefully  drawn  contract  was  made,  but  the 
bills  remained  unpaid. 

An  appeal  was  made  to  Vergennes,  asking  his 
advice. 

We  do  not  know  [the  Committee  said]  who  the 
persons  are  who  constitute  the  house  of  Roderique  & 
Co. ;  but  Congress  has  ever  understood,  and  so  have 
the  people  in  America  in  general,  that  they  were  under 
obligations  to  his  Majesty's  good  will  for  the  great 
part  of  the  merchandise  and  warlike  stores  heretofore 
furnished  under  the  firm  name  of  Roderique,  Hortalez 
&  Co. ;  we  cannot  discover  that  any  written  contract 
was  ever  made  between  Congress  or  any  agent  of 
theirs  and  the  house  of  Roderique  &  Co.,  nor  do  we 
know  of  any  living  witness  or  any  other  evidence, 
whose  testimony  can  ascertain  for  us,  who  the  persons 
are  who  constitute  the  house  of  Roderique  &  Co., 
or  what  were  the  terms  upon  which  the  merchandise 
and  munitions  of  war  were  supplied,  neither  as  to  the 
price,  nor  the  time,  nor  the  conditions  of  payment. 

We  apprehend  that  the  United  States  hold  them 
selves  under  obligation  to  his  Majesty  for  all  those 
supplies,  and  we  are  sure  that  it  is  their  wish  and 
their  determination  to  discharge  the  obligation  as  soon 
as  Providence  shall  put  it  in  their  power.  In  the  mean 
time  we  are  ready  to  settle  and  liquidate  the  accounts 
according  to  our  instructions,  at  any  time  and  in  any 
manner,  which  his  Majesty  and  your  Excellency 
shall  point  out  to  us. 

In  reply  to  this  beautiful  letter  Vergennes  did 
not  and  could  not  make  any  clear  statement. 


Harassed  in  Europe  69 

He  could  not  acknowledge  any  responsibility  for 
Roderique  &  Co.  in  furnishing  munitions  of  war  to 
America,  while  England  and  France  were  at  peace ; 
he  wrote  the  newly  appointed  minister  to  the 
United  States: 

The  king  has  not  furnished  anything,  he  has  simply 
allowed  M.  de  Beaumarchais  to  provide  himself  with 
what  he  wanted  in  the  arsenals,  on  condition  of  re 
placing  what  he  took;  and  that  for  the  rest,  I  will 
gladly  interpose  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  pressed 
for  the  payment  of  the  military  supplies. 

In  January,  1779,  John  Jay,  president  of 
Congress,  extended  an  eloquent  vote  of  thanks 
to  Beaumarchais  as  follows: 

Sir,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  sensible  of 
your  exertions  in  their  favor,  present  you  with  their 
thanks,  and  assure  you  of  their  regard. 

They  lament  the  inconvenience  you  have  suffered 
by  the  great  advances  made  in  support  of  these  states. 
Circumstances  have  prevented  a  compliance  with 
their  wishes;  but  they  will  take  the  most  effectual 
measures  in  their  power  to  discharge  the  debt  due 
you. 

The  liberal  sentiments  and  extensive  views,  which 
could  alone  dictate  a  conduct  like  yours,  are  con 
spicuous  in  your  actions,  and  adorn  your  character. 
While  with  great  talents  you  served  your  Prince, 
you  have  gained  the  esteem  of  this  infant  Republic, 
and  will  receive  the  united  applause  of  the  New 
World. 


70  Silas  Deane 

This  must  have  been  very  gratifying  to  a  man 
who  enjoyed  applause  as  did  Beaumarchais,  and 
in  December  he  sent  over  another  fleet  laden  with 
arms  and  supplies;  he  also  equipped  a  man-of- 
war  named  Fier  Roderique,  and  sent  it  to  guard 
the  merchantmen,  at  his  own  expense,  and  to  his 
personal  loss. 

The  United  States  did  make  some  payment,  not 
in  tobacco,  which  could  have  been  turned  into 
money,  but  it  remitted  two  million  and  a  half  of 
livres  in  bills,  payable  three  years  in  the  future. 
These  scanty  promises  of  a  precarious  govern 
ment  would  not  have  been  paid  at  all,  had  not 
Dr.  Franklin  insisted  upon  it. 

At  last  Beaumarchais'  money  and  zeal  gave 
out,  and  the  rich  nobles,  who  had  helped  him, 
showed  little  indulgence.  In  1781,  Silas  Deane 
sought  the  settlement  of  Beaumarchais'  claims, 
for  Deane  never  wavered  in  the  declaration  that 
the  supplies  should  be  paid  for. 

In  November,  1776,  Deane  wrote  Congress: 

i 

I  never  should  have  completed  what  I  have  done  but 
for  the  indefatigable  and  spirited  exertions  of  M. 
Beaumarchais,  to  whom  the  United  States  are  on 
every  account  greatly  indebted;  more  so  than  to  any 
other  person  on  this  side  of  the  water;  he  is  greatly 
in  advance  of  stores,  clothing,  and  the  like,  and  there- 


Harassed  in  Europe  71 

fore  I  am  confident  that  you  will  make  him  the  earliest 
and  most  ample  remittance. 

Deane  went  over  the  accounts  and  found  the 
balance  due  Beaumarchais  was  three  million  six 
hundred  thousand  livres,  but  Lee's  lies  and 
Deane's  calamities  furnished  excuses  for  Congress; 
to  postpone  Beaumarchais'  claims. 

In  1787,  with  accounts  ten  years  old,  Beau 
marchais  wrote  Congress  complaining  of  the 
ingratitude  of  a  powerful  nation,  and  it  was 
voted  to  refer  the  account  to  Arthur  Lee,  who, 
following  his  false  genius,  and  consistent  with 
his  willingness  to  ruin  Beaumarchais,  declared 
that  the  goods  furnished  by  Roderique  &  Co.  were 
gifts,  and  that  Beaumarchais  owed  the  United 
States  almost  two  million  livres. 

In  1793,  Alexander  Hamilton  examined  the 
claims  and  set  the  sum  due  M.  Beaumarchais  at 
two  million  two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  livres 
at  least,  and  possibly  a  million  more,  but  Congress 
made  no  appropriation. 

Ruined  by  the  French  Revolution,  Beaumarchais 
fled  to  Hamburg,  and  from  his  garret  and  poverty, 
ill  and  broken-hearted,  he  wrote:  "Americans, 
I  served  you  with  untiring  zeal.  I  have  thus  far 
received  no  return  for  this  but  vexation  and  dis 
appointment,  and  I  die  your  creditor.  On  leaving 


72  Silas  Deane 

this  world  I  must  ask  you  to  give  what  you  owe 
me  to  my  daughter  as  a  dowry. " 

Twenty-nine  years  later,  after  repeated  en 
deavors  for  justice,  Beaumarchais'  daughter 
went  to  Washington  and  solicited  payment  of  the 
prosperous  nation,  and  eleven  years  later,  fifty- 
seven  years  after  the  debt  was  incurred,  the  heirs 
were  told  they  would  receive  twenty-five  cents 
on  a  dollar,  if  they  would  sign  a  receipt  in  full. 
They  did  so  to  the  shame  of  the  young  Republic ! 

Such  was  the  treatment  of  a  man  of  whom 
Deane  wrote  Congress  in  November,  1776: 

I  cannot  in  a  letter  do  full  justice  to  M.  Beaumarchais 
for  his  great  address  and  assiduity  in  our  cause;  I  can 
only  say  he  appears  to  have  undertaken  it  on  great 
and  liberal  principles,  and  has  in  the  pursuit  made  it 
his  own.  His  interest  and  influence,  which  are  great, 
have  been  exerted  to  the  utmost  in  the  cause  of  the 
United  States,  and  I  hope  the  consequences  will  equal 
his  wishes. 

The  consequences  of  what  he  did  for  America 
have  more  than  equaled  his>  expectations,  but 
what  can  we  say  of  his  share  in  the  prosperity, 
to  achieve  which  he  gave  such  altruistic,  such 
unstinted,  devotion? 


CHAPTER  VI 

DEANE   FORWARDS   MILITARY   SUPPLIES 


Deane  presented  to  Vergennes  on 
July  17,  1776,  his  credentials  as  agent  for 
America,  he  was  not  authorized  to  hint  that  the 
colonies  aimed  at  independency,  though  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  issued 
nearly  two  weeks  before  he  reached  Paris.  The 
only  ground  of  his  appeal  was  that  no  people 
should  be  taxed  without  their  consent. 

That  France  had  been  pitched  on  for  the  first  appli 
cation,  from  an  opinion  that  if  we  should,  as  there  is  a 
great  appearance  we  shall,  come  to  a  total  separation 
from  Great  Britain,  it  is  likely  a  great  part  of  our 
commerce  would  naturally  fall  to  her  share.  That  the 
supply  we  at  present  want  is  clothing  and  arms  for 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  with  a  suitable  quantity 
of  ammunition  and  a  hundred  field-pieces. 

The  French  Ministry  evaded  all  responsibility, 
but  told  Deane  he  must  do  all  business  with 
Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co.  —  in  other  words, 
with  Beaumarchais  ;  and  the  negotiations  began 

73 


74  Silas  Deane 

with  the  promise  of  remittance  within  eight 
months  of  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  the  goods. 
\  ,  On  August  2,  Deane  wrote  the  Committee  of 
Congress:  "A  number  of  gentlemen  of  rank  and 
fortune,  who  have  seen  service  and  have  good 
character,  are  desirous  of  serving  the  United 
Colonies  and  have  applied ;  pray  let  me  have  orders 
on  this  subject. "  Though  sharply  criticized  later 
for  sending  over  so  many  French  engineers  and 
officers,  it  is  significant  that  his  request  for  in 
structions  was  unheeded,  and  he  was  left  entirely 
to  his  own  judgment. 

Deane  was  especially  impressed  with  M.  Cou- 
dray  "who  had  the  character  of  the  first  engineer 
of  the  kingdom,"  Deane  said,  "and  his  manners 
and  disposition  will,  I  am  confident,  be  highly 
pleasing  to  you,  as  he  is  a  plain,  modest,  active, 
sensible  man,  perfectly  averse  to  frippery  and 
parade." 

In  November,  Deane  wrote : 

M.  de  Coudray,  who  has  the  character  of  being  one 
of  the  best  officers  of  artillery  in  Europe,  has  been  in 
defatigable  in  our  service,  and  I  hope  that  the  terms 
I  have  made  with  him  will  not  be  thought  exorbitant 
as  he  was  a  principal  means  of  engaging  the  stores. 

The  letters  of  Deane  are  full  of  anxiety.  On 
July  20,  he  asked  Beaumarchais  for  two  hundred 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        75 

brass  cannon,  and  arms  and  clothing  for  twenty- 
five  thousand  men,  and  desires  still  more.  Four 
days  later  he  wrote : 

The  fate  of  my  country  depends  on  the  arrival  of  these 
supplies.  I  cannot  be  too  anxious  on  the  subject, 
nor  is  there  any  danger  or  exposure  so  great,  but  what 
must  be  hazarded,  if  necessary,  to  effect  so  capital 
and  important  a  subject. 

Two  days  afterward  Beaumarchais  wrote: 

I  do  not  think  so  large  a  train  of  artillery  as  you 
desire  can  leave  this  country  without  a  chief  and  offi 
cers,  for  among  a  nation  as  peaceful  as  the  Americans, 
all  knowledge  of  the  tactics  must  be  unknown,  and  the 
proper  management  of  a  train  of  artillery  is  the  most 
difficult  branch  of  the  tactics.  You  ought  not,  there 
fore,  to  hesitate  in  adopting  Mr.  Arthur  Lee's  former 
plan  of  sending  engineers  and  officers,  particularly 
officers  of  artillery.  If  you  approve  of  the  plan,  it 
shall  be  my  duty  to  tempt  the  best  ones  of  their  class, 
especially  soldiers  of  fortune.  Here  there  should  be 
no  effort  at  economy. 

Coudray  was  a  striking  sample  of  the  soldiers  of 
fortune  engaged.  Deane  wrote  the  Secret  Com 
mittee  that,  dissatisfied:  with  an  idle  life,  he  was 
willing  to  be  advanced  from  his  position  as  an 
adjutant-general  in  the  French  service,  to  be 
general  of  artillery  in  the  American  forces,  with 
the  rank  of  major-general. 


76  Silas  Deane 

It  is  clear  that  the  French  were  determined  to 
lump  officers  and  supplies,  and  apparently  Deane 
had  no  alternative,  he  must  take  both  or  neither, 
for  he  adds : 

Considering  the  importance  of  having  two  hundred 
pieces  of  brass  cannon  with  every  necessary  article 
for  twenty-five  thousand  men  provided,  with  an  able 
and  experienced  general  at  the  head,  warranted  by 
the  Minister  of  the  Court,  with  a  number  of  fine 
and  spirited  young  officers  in  his  train,  and  all  with 
out  advancing  one  shilling,  is  too  tempting  an  offer 
for  me  to  hesitate  about,  though  I  own  there  is  a 
silence  in  my  instructions. 

In  our  judgment  of  Deane  for  sending  over  so 
many  officers  as  he  did,  we  are  also  to  remember 
how  eager  they  were  to  come.  Franklin  wrote 
to  Lovell,  October  17,  1777: 

You  can  have  no  conception  of  the  arts  and  interest 
made  use  of  to  recommend  and  engage  us  to  recom 
mend  very  indifferent  persons.  The  opportunity  is 
boundless;  the  numbers  we  refuse  incredible,  which, 
if  you  knew,  you  would  applaud  us  for,  and  on  that 
account  excuse  the  few  we  have  been  prevailed  upon 
to  introduce  to  you. 

On  September  n,  Deane  signed  an  agreement 
with  General  Coudray  to  have  the  pay  of  major- 
general,  and  wrote,  "He  will  exert  himself  in 
despatching  the  artillery  and  stores  agreed  on." 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        77 

Coudray  was  a  disappointment:  the  noble 
qualities  Deane  had  discovered  in  him  were  only 
skin-deep.  He  set  sail  in  the  Amphitrite  with  a 
large  cargo  of  stores,  but  soon  the  vessel  returned 
to  port  by  order  of  the  officious  Coudray  and 
against  the  protest  of  the  captain.  The  officers 
complained  of  a  lack  of  livestock.  Evidently  the 
gallant  general,  Coudray,  found  the  menu  less  ap 
petizing  than  in  the  Paris  banquet  halls.  Deane 
wrote  bitterly: 

The  consequences  have  been  bad.  This  I  must 
say:  He  acted  an  unwise  and  injudicious  part  in 
returning  into  port;  he  gave  a  fresh  alarm  to  the 
Ministry  and  occasioned  a  second  counter-order. 
Indeed,  Mons.  de  Coudray  appeared  to  have  solely 
in  view  his  own  ease,  safety,  and  emolument.  He 
returned  quite  to  Paris,  without  the  least  ground  that 
I  can  find  for  his  conduct,  and  has  laid  his  scheme  to 
pass  to  America  in  a  ship  without  artillery,  which  is 
absurd,  as  I  engaged  with  this  man  solely  on  account 
of  the  artillery  he  was  to  assist  in  procuring  and 
attending  in  person.  His  desertion  of  this  charge, 
with  his  other  conduct,  makes  me  wish  that  he  may 
not  arrive  in  America  at  all. 

Coudray  finally  brought  his  officious  and  con 
ceited  presence  across  the  Atlantic.  Then  came 
troubles  innumerable;  the  arrangement  was  that 
he  should  command  the  artillery;  there  sprang  up 


78  Silas  Deane 

a  plentiful  crop  of  resignations:  Coudray  would 
have  everything  or  nothing.  His  inflexible  will 
paid  no  regard  to  the  situation.  The  difficulty 
was  relieved  when  Congress  created  for  him  the 
office  of  inspector  of  the  artillery  with  the  rank 
of  major-general.  Coudray  refused  this,  and  en 
tered  the  army  as  a  volunteer,  with  the  rank  of 
captain;  but,  by  what  Franklin  called  "a  happy 
accident, "  on  September  16, 1777,  he  was  drowned 
in  the  Schuylkill,  and  the  rest  of  his  corps  returned 
to  France. 

More  conspicuous  still  was  the  episode  con 
cerning  Comte  de  Broglie.  The  following  is  what 
Deane  wrote  the  Committee  of  Secret  Corre 
spondence  December  6,  1776,  on  a  matter  which 
brought  sharp  criticism  upon  the  head  of  the 
writer : 

I  submit  one  thought  to  you,  whether,  if  you  could 
engage  a  great  general  of  the  highest  character  in 
Europe,  such  for  instance  as  Prince  Ferdinand,  Mar 
shal  Broglie,  or  others  of  an  equal  rank,  to  take 
the  lead  of  your  armies,  such  a  step  would  not  be 
politic,  as  it  would  give  a  character  and  a  credit  to  your 
military,  and  strike  perhaps  a  greater  panic  in  our 
enemy.  I  only  suggest  the  thought,  and  leave  you  to 
confer  with  Baron  de  Kalb  on  the  subject  at  large. 

The  candidate  for  the  position  of  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  American  forces  was  Comte  de  Broglie, 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        79 

who  belonged  to  a  family  which  had  furnished  two 
marshals  to  France.  He  was  a  soldier  of  experi 
ence  and  energy,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  when 
his  cause  was  urged  by  Baron  de  Kalb,  Deane, 
overburdened  with  work  and  perplexity,  and 
shouldering  alone  the  task  of  commission,  unaided 
by  advice  from  Congress,  should  have  listened 
with  sympathy.  On  November  6,  he  wrote  the 
Committee : 

Comte  de  Broglie,  who  commanded  the  army  of 
France  in  the  last  war,  did  me  the  honor  to  call  on 
me  twice  yesterday  with  an  officer  who  served  as  his 
head  quartermaster-general  and  has  now  a  regiment  in 
the  service.  He  is  desirous  of  engaging  in  the  service 
of  the  United  States.  I  can  by  no  means  let  slip  the 
opportunity  of  engaging  a  person  of  so  much  experi 
ence,  who  is  by  every  one  recognized  as  one  of  the 
bravest  and  most  skillful  officers  in  the  kingdom. 

Just  a  month  later,  Deane  proposed  to  the 
Secret  Committee  that  De  Broglie  be  engaged  to 
take  the  lead  in  the  army,  "I  only  suggest  the 
thought, "  wrote  Deane,  "and  leave  you  to  confer 
with  Baron  de  Kalb."  Ten  days  later  De  Kalb 
argues  that  a  military  leader  of  great  European 
reputation  would  be  worth  twenty  thousand  men. 
It  is  not  strange  that  Deane  was  impressed  with 
the  idea  that  a  man  brought  up  in  war,  with  such 
a  reputation  as  Broglie,  would  be  of  great  value  to 


8o  Silas  Deane 

the  American  cause.  Deane  was  having  a  hard 
time. 

Well-nigh  embarrassed  to  death  [he  writes],  with 
applications  of  officers  to  go  out  to  America,  bills 
protested,  credit  poor  in  Paris,  and  worse  in  Amster 
dam,  reports  of  the  disaster  on  Long  Island,  the 
burning  of  New  York,  and  of  negotiations  with  Eng 
land  rendering  the  French  Ministry  wary  and  distant, 
no  orders,  advices,  or  remittance. 

On  December  4,  he  wrote  Robert  Morris  that 
in  eight  months  he  had  received  but  two  letters 
from  Congress.  "Every  one  here  judges,"  he 
writes,  "you  are  negotiating,  or  giving  up  the 
cause,  and  the  British  ambassador  and  agents 
roundly  assert  it." 

His  anxiety  and  distress  were  greater  than  at 
any  other  time  in  his  life.  In,  the  midst  of  all  this 
wearing,  perplexing,  discouraging  medley,  we 
should  not  criticize  too  severely  the  man  for  mildly 
suggesting  the  project  of  securing  a  commander-in- 
chief  of  European  reputation  for  the  American 
forces.  Washington  had  a  high  reputation,  and 
Deane  had  great  respect  for  his  ability,  but  he  still 
had  his  spurs  to  win.  We  smile  with  pitying 
compassion  at  the  folly  of  displacing  the  majestic 
George  Washington  with  a  little  Frenchman, 
whose  head  stood  erect,  as  one  contemporary 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        81 

said,  "like  a  bantam  cock";  his  sparkling  eyes, 
when  he  was  excited,  were  like  a  volcano  pouring 
forth  fire ;  with  the  fame  of  the  Seven  Years'  War 
resting  on  his  pompous  shoulders.  De  Kalb  went 
over  to  America  as  advance  agent  of  this  fierce 
little  second-rate  officer.  De  Kalb  had  the  utmost 
confidence  in  De  Broglie  and  submitted  to  him  a 
project,  of  which  he  said  that  it  "would  perhaps 
decide  the  success  of  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the 
United  States.  Congress  should  ask  of  the  king 
of  France  some  one,  who  would  become  their  civil 
and  military  chief,  the  temporary  generalissimo  of 
the  new  republic. "  De  Kalb  speaks  considerately 
of  Washington;  thinks  he  has  done  fairly  well. 

But  my  plan  is  [he  says]  to  have  a  man  whose  name 
and  reputation  alone  would  discourage  the  enemy. 
Many  young  noblemen  would  follow  him  as  volunteers 
for  the  sake  of  serving  and  distinguishing  themselves 
under  his  eyes.  The  nobility,  by  its  interest  at  Court, 
by  its  credit,  or  the  management  of  its  friends  and 
kinsmen,  could  decide  the  king  in  favor  of  a  war 
with  England ....  Such  a  leader,  with  the  assist 
ants  he  would  choose,  would  be  worth  twenty  thou 
sand  men,  and  would  double  the  value  of  the  American 
troops.  This  man  may  be  found,  I  think  I  have 
found  him,  and  I  am  sure  that  once  he  is  known,  he 
will  unite  the  suffrages  of  the  public,  of  all  sensible 
men,  of  all  military  men,  and  I  venture  to  say  of  all 
Europe. 


82  Silas  Deane 

We  are  amused  at  the  suggestion  that  follows 
that  this  fiery  little  fountain  of  emotion  and 
egotism  needed  to  be  wooed  like  a  coy  maiden. 
De  Kalb  continues: 

The  question  is  to  obtain  his  acceptance,  which  as  I 
think  can  only  be  accomplished  by  loading  him  with 
sufficient  honors  to  satisfy  his  ambition,  as  by  nam 
ing  him  Field  Marshal  Generalissimo,  and  giving  him 
a  considerable  sum  of  ready  money  for  his  numerous 
children;  the  cares  of  whom  he  would  have  to  forego 
for  some  time  during  his  sojourn  beyond  the  seas,  to 
be  equivalent  to  them  in  case  of  the  loss  of  their  father, 
and  by  giving  him  all  the  powers  necessary  for  the 
good  of  the  service. 

De  Kalb  planned  to  go  over  to  America  on  the 
Amphitrite  in  December,  with  the  promise  of  the 
rank  of  major-general  together  with  twelve  thou 
sand  livres  for  expenses;  and  his  great  mission 
was  to  convince  the  rustics  in  America  that  a  man 
of  elevated  rank  and  large  experience  called 
generalissimo,  with  supreme  authority  over  the 
army,  and  a  large  pension  for  life,  would  splendidly 
replace  the  provincial  Washington,  and  reimburse 
by  a  hundred-fold  all  the  expenses  of  the  costly 
venture. 

It  is  unfair  to  shoulder  all  this  variegated  bubble 
upon  the  worried  and  overworked  Deane;  De 
Kalb  was  the  prime  mover  in  behalf  of  his  modest 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        83 

little  chief.  "I  leave  this  unsigned,"  adds  De 
Kalb;  "you  know  who  I  am. " 

Broglie  had  remained  quietly  at  his  country 
seat  at  Ruffec,  while  De  Kalb  was  working  so 
faithfully  for  the  prosperity  of  America,  by  plead 
ing  the  interests  of  its  mighty  deliverer.  In  the 
spring  of  1777,  De  Kalb  embarked  with  Lafayette 
on  the  Victory,  and  when  he  reached  America 
all  his  dreamy  mists  of  delusion  vanished,  after 
he  had  entered  the  presence  of  Washington,  and 
had  seen  the  greatness  of  his  character,  the  breadth 
and  force  of  his  mind,  his  courage  and  his  success. 
De  Kalb  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  the 
colonies  had  no  need  of  a  brilliant  French  officer 
to  give  them  the  victory.  In  September,  1777,  he 
wrote  to  General  Broglie : 

If  I  return  to  Europe,  it  is  largely  on  account  of  the 
impossibility  of  succeeding  in  the  great  project  with 
which  I  occupied  myself  with  so  much  pleasure.  M. 
de  Valfort  will  tell  you  that  the  proposition  is  im 
practicable.  It  would  be  regarded  as  a  crying  injustice 
against  Washington,  and  an  affront  to  the  honor  of 
the  country.  He  does  every  day  more  than  could  be 
expected  from  any  general  in  the  world  in  the  same 
circumstances,  by  his  natural  and  acquired  capa 
city,  his  bravery,  good  sense,  uprightness  and  honesty, 
to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  army  and  people,  and 
I  look  upon  him  as  the  sole  defender  of  his  country's 
cause. 


84  Silas  Deane 

Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  man  whom 
Deane  commissioned  was  Lafayette,  of  whom 
Deane  wrote  the  Secret  Committee  of  Congress : 
''Lafayette  not  thinking  that  he  can  obtain  leave 
of  his  family  to  pass  the  seas  till  he  can  go  as  a 
general  officer,  I  have  thought  I  could  not  better 
serve  my  country  than  by  granting  him  the  rank  of 
major-general." 

The  man  who  probably  did  more  for  our  cause 
than  any  one  else  whom  Deane  sent  from  Europe 
was  Baron  Steuben,  whose  coming  overbalances 
many  a  blunder  in  commissioning  some  gay 
soldier  of  fortune. 

On  September  3,  1777,  Deane  wrote  Morris  of 
Steuben,  who  had  visited  Paris  two  months  before, 
with  all  the  weight  of  twenty  years  of  experience 
under  Frederick  the  Great,  part  of  the  time 
quartermaster-general  and  aide-de-camp  to  the 
king  of  Prussia.  Steuben  carried  in  his  pocket 
letters  from  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  and  wished 
to  embark  immediately,  but  finding  no  oppor 
tunity,  returned  to  Germany ;  urged  by  his  friends 
he  went  again  to  Paris,  and  although  Franklin 
did  not  favor  the  plan,  Deane  urged  the  German 
veteran  to  go  to  America  without  delay.  It  was 
at  a  time  when  complaints  were  coming  back  to 
Paris  of  the  swarm  of  French  officers,  who  had 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army       85 

embarrassed  more  than  helped  the  cause  of  the 
insurgents,  but  Deane  recognized  the  superior 
worth  of  Steuben,  and  recommended  him  to  Con 
gress  and  to  Washington.  Deane's  judgment  was 
justified.  No  other  officers  who  came  to  us  did 
more  than  Steuben  to  perfect  our  army.  He  was 
made  inspector-general  of  the  army,  with  the 
rank  of  major-general ;  introduced  German  tactics, 
organized  the  military  staff,  and  trained  the  troops 
in  the  use  of  the  bayonet. 

On  September  17,  1776,  Deane  wrote  to  a 
French  firm  that  the  total  silence  of  his  friends  in 
America  had  well-nigh  distracted  him,  and  de 
ranged  his  whole  proceedings;  however,  he  was 
tired  of  waiting,  and  must  proceed  to  order  sul 
phur,  saltpetre,  and  powder.  The  same  day,  he 
wrote  to  Robert  Morris  that  he  should  forward  in 
October,  clothing  for  twenty  thousand  men, 
thirty  thousand  fusils,  one  hundred  tons  of  powder, 
twenty-four  brass  mortars,  with  shells,  shot,  lead, 
etc. 

On  September  30,  he  explains  to  Morris  his 
embarrassment  in  ordering  large  stores  of  military 
supplies  without  a  shilling  of  money,  exclusive  of 
a  fund  of  forty  thousand  pounds  originally  in 
tended  for  other  affairs.  He  writes:  "To  let  slip 
or  to  let  pass  such  an  opportunity  for  want  of 


86  Silas  Deane 

ready  money  would  be  unfortunate,  and  yet  that 
was  taking  from  a  fund  before  deficient.'*  He 
adds  a  little  touch  which  shows  the  domestic  side 
of  his  life:  "Pray  forward  the  trifles  I  am  sending 
to  my  little  deserted  family  as  soon  as  received. 
God  bless  and  prosper  America,  is  the  prayer  of 
every  one  here,  to  which  I  say,  Amen  and  Amen. " 

Although  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had 
been  issued  in  America  nearly  three  months  be 
fore,  there  had  been  no  official  announcement  of 
the  fact  to  France.  On  October  i,  Deane  wrote 
the  Secret  Committee  that  the  situation  was 
critical,  the  ministry  uneasy  at  the  absolute  silence 
from  America  and  the  bold  assertions  of  the 
British  Ambassador,  together  with  the  declaration 
of  a  General  Hopkins  of  Maryland,  who  pretended 
to  be  in  Deane's  secrets,  who  insisted  that  the 
stores  would  be  used  against  France.  This  had 
brought  the  French  to  apprehend,  not  only  a 
settlement  between  England  and  America,  but 
the  most  serious  consequences  to  the  French 
West  India  Islands  should  the  colonies  again 
unite  with  Great  Britain.  He  said : 

For  me,  alas,  I  had  nothing  left  but  to  make  the 
most  positive  assertions  that  no  accommodation  could 
or  would  take  place,  and  to  pledge  myself  in  the 
strongest  possible  manner  that  thus  would  turn  out 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        87 

the  event,  yet  so  strong  were  their  apprehensions  that 
an  order  was  issued  to  suspend  furnishing  me  with 
stores.  Our  friend  Beaumarchais  exerted  himself, 
and  in  a  day  or  two  obtained  the  orders  to  be  counter 
manded.  For  Heaven's  sake,  if  you  mean  to  have 
any  connection  with  this  kingdom,  be  more  assiduous 
in  getting  your  letters  here.  It  would  be  too  tedious 
to  recount  what  I  have  met  with.  I  do  not  mention 
a  single  difficulty  with  one  complaining  thought  for 
myself:  my  all  is  devoted,  and  I  am  happy  in  being 
so  far  successful.  The  stores  are  collecting,  and  I  hope 
will  be  embarked  by  the  middle  of  the  month.  It  is 
consistent  with  a  political  letter  to  urge  the  remit 
tance  of  the  fourteen  thousand  hogsheads  of  tobacco 
written  for  formerly,  in  part  payment  of  these  stores : 
if  you  make  it  twenty  thousand  the  public  will  be 
gainers. 


Evidently  Deane  did  not  think  of  the  goods  as  a 
present. 

A  week  later,  Deane  wrote  the  Committee  that 
the  three  months'  silence  after  the  Declaration  of 
the  Fourth  of  July  had  given  him  inexpressible 
anxiety,  and  more  than  once  came  near  frustrating 
his  whole  endeavors,  for  it  had  been  expected  in 
Paris  that  the  next  step  after  the  independence 
would  be  an  appeal  for  the  friendship  of  France. 
He  again  calls  for  twenty  thousand  hogsheads  of 
tobacco  and  suggests  that  the  frigates  could  dis 
charge  their  cargo  at  Bordeaux,  and  refit  there 


88  Silas  Deane 

as  cruisers  to  prey  on  British  commerce  and  pillage 
the  west  coast  of  England  and  Scotland. 

Through  the  autumn  of  1776,  Deane  was  bur 
dened  with  incessant  anxiety  in  his  endeavors  to 
get  the  war  materials  to  Havre  de  Grace  and 
Nantes,  and  then  away.  He  was  overwhelmed  by 
offers  from  French  officers,  eager  for  advanced  office 
and  increased  pay.  He  wrote:  "Had  I  ten  ships 
I  could  fill  them  all  with  passengers  for  America.  I 
am  well-nigh  harassed  with  applications  of  officers. 
Baron  de  Kalb,  I  consider  an  important  acquisi 
tion,  as  are  many  other  officers,  whose  character  I 
stay  not  to  particularize." 

On  December  3,  he  wrote  the  Committee:  "I 
shipped  forty  thousand  tons  of  saltpetre,  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds  of  powder  via  Marti 
nique,  and  one  hundred  barrels  via  Amsterdam. " 
By  the  same  mail  he  wrote  John  Jay  that  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  presented 
in  Court,  and  it  was  well  received. 

Thomas  Morris,  the  wayward  brother  of  Robert, 
added  much  to  the  care  and  worry  of  Deane. 
Thomas  was  in  London,  and  his  able  and  powerful 
brother,  Robert,  anxious  to  help  him  in  his  career, 
had  given  him  a  financial  position  in  London 
under  the  supervision  of  Deane.  Writing  to 
Robert  Morris,  December  4,  1777,  Deane  says: 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army         89 

I  am  afraid,  from  good  advices  from  London,  that 
pleasure  has  got  too  strong  a  hold  on  him.  On  his 
arrival  in  London,  a  respectable  friend  wrote  me  that 
the  company  he  dipped  at  once  into  was  so  dissolute 
and  expensive  that  it  very  essentially  injured  the 
reputation  of  your  house. 


On  October  23,  a  letter  came  from  Robert 
Morris  urging  Deane  to  be  attentive  to  Thomas 
and  spur  him  up  to  diligent,  honest,  and  faithful 
discharge  of  duty.  By  the  same  mail  there  came 
a  letter  from  the  Committee  announcing  that 
Thomas  Jefferson  had  declined  to  go  to  France, 
and  Arthur  Lee  of  London  had  been  appointed  to 
serve  with  Deane  and  Franklin  as  commissioner. 
It  is  interesting  to  imagine  what  would  have  been 
Deane's  later  life,  if  Jefferson  had  accepted  the 
office  of  commissioner,  and  Arthur  Lee  had  been 
allowed  to  spend  his  virulence  on  some  one  else. 

The  gloom  of  approaching  disaster  and  ruin 
began  to  gather  about  Deane  when  in  December, 
1777,  Arthur  Lee  crossed  the  British  Channel  and 
took  lodgings  in  Paris. 

Before  we  pass  to  the  consideration  of  Deane's 
work  in  conjunction  with  Franklin  and  Lee,  we 
glance  at  the  work  accomplished  in  the  five  months 
during  which  he  had  served  alone.  By  the  first 
of  December,  eight  ships  were  ready  to  sail  with 


90  Silas  Deane 

the  supplies,  which  were  indispensable  for  the 
campaign  which  culminated  in  the  surrender  of 
Burgoyne  at  Saratoga,  and  all,  except  the  Flamand, 
were  got  to  sea  in  January  and  February,  1777; 
the  Flamand  sailed  in  September.  These  vessels 
carried  eight  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
pairs  of  shoes,  three  thousand  six  hundred 
blankets,  more  than  four  thousand  dozen  pairs  of 
stockings,  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  brass  cannon, 
one  hundred  and  fifty-three  carriages,  more  than 
forty-one  thousand  balls,  thirty-seven  thousand 
fusils,  three  hundred  and  seventy- three  thousand 
flints,  fifteen  thousand  gun  worms,  five  hundred 
and  fourteen  thousand  musket  balls,  nearly 
twenty  thousand  pounds  of  lead,  nearly  one  hun 
dred  and  sixty-on%  thousand  pounds  of  powder, 
twenty-one  mortars,  more  than  three  thousand 
bombs,  more  than  eleven  thousand  grenades,  three 
hundred  and  forty-five  grapeshot,  eighteen  thou 
sand  spades,  shovels,  and  axes,  over  four  thousand 
tents,  and  fifty-one  thousand  pounds  of  sulphur. 

The  Amphitrite  and  Mercure,  on  board  of  which 
were  more  than  eighteen  thousand  stands  of  arms 
complete,  and  fifty-two  pieces  of  brass  cannon > 
with  powder  and  tents  and  clothing,  reached 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  in  the  spring  in 
season  for  the  campaign  of  1777.  It  is  impossible 


Forwards  Supplies  for  Army        91 

• 
to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  those  supplies  in 

the  battles  which  culminated  in  the  fall  of  Bur- 
goyne,  who  was  sweeping  down  powerfully  from 
Canada  to  New  York  with  the  purpose  of  separat 
ing  the  northern  from  the  southern  colonies.  It 
was  a  time  of  general  alarm  throughout  the 
country.  The  governor's  Horse  Guard  of  Con 
necticut  was  summoned.  Every  nerve  was 
strained  to  stay  the  advance  of  Burgoyne.  The 
military  supplies,  furnished  by  Vergennes  and 
forwarded  by  Beaumarchais  and  Deane,  landed 
at  Portsmouth  and  carried  overland  to  the  Hud 
son,  figured  largely  in  the  splendid  victory,  which 
gave  new  courage  and  hope  to  the  American 
cause,  and  soon  led  to  the  French  recognition  of 
the  new  republic. 

It  were  unfortunate  if  our  story  of  Coudray  and 
De  Broglie  has  created  the  impression  that  all  the 
volunteers  who  came  from  beyond  the  sea  were 
failures;  Lafayette,  De  Kalb,  Steuben,  and  Pulaski 
came  early,  and  others  who  came  later  who  did 
valiant  service. 

On  the  whole,  the  choice  of  Deane  as  com 
missioner  to  forward  military  supplies  was  justified 
by  the  results. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FRANKLIN  AND  LEE  JOIN  DEANE  IN  PARIS 

'T'HE  task  of  Deane  was  that  of  agent  of  the 
Secret  Committee  of  Congress  in  search  of 
help  for  the  struggling  colonists.  He  had  no 
official  position,  but  after  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  was  issued,  it  was  decided  to  appoint 
three  Commissioners,  and  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and 
Deane  were  chosen ;  Jefferson  declined,  and  Arthur 
Lee  was  appointed  in  his  place. 

There  never  has  been  any  question  about  the 
wisdom  of  the  choice  of  Franklin. 

Philosophic,  literary,  and  political  ferment  pre 
pared  the  French  people  to  sympathize  with  the 
American  insurgents.  Scientific  activity  was  vigor 
ous  in  France  in  the  eighteenth  century.  "More 
new  truths,"  says  Buckle,  "concerning  the  ex 
ternal  world  were  discovered  in  France  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  than  during 
all  the  previous  periods  put  together."  Lecture 
rooms  of  professors  of  chemistry,  anatomy,  and 
physics  were  almost  as  crowded  as  theatres,  and 

92 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France       93 

when  Franklin  appeared  in  Paris  heralded  by  his 
fame  in  electricity,  and  put  the  first  lightning-rod 
in  France  upon  his  dwelling  in  Passy,  the  genial 
philosopher  received  a  royal  welcome. 

Wearied  with  the  artificial  modes  of  life,  the 
French  were  delighted  with  the  naturalness  of  the 
Americans,  and  when  Franklin  appeared  with  his 
provincial  dress  and  benignant  face,  he  excited  a 
widespread  interest  which  rose  to  enthusiasm. 
The  feeling  of  the  English  was  different.  Some 
claimed  he  had  abandoned  his  country  in  her 
ruin.  "I  have  just  seen,"  writes  Franklin, 
11  seven  paragraphs  in  the  English  papers  about  me, 
six  were  lies. "  Stormont,  the  British  Ambassador 
to  France,  wrote:  "It  is  generally  believed  here 
that  he  comes  in  the  double  capacity  of  a  nego 
tiator  and  a  fugitive.  He  will  lie,  he  will  promise, 
and  he  will  flatter,  with  all  the  insincerity  and 
subtlety  that  are  natural  to  him."  Deane  wrote: 
"His  arrival  is  the  common  topic  for  conversation, 
and  has  given  birth  to  a  thousand  conjectures." 

No  one  else  could  have  been  selected  so  admir 
ably  adapted  to  the  task  that  needed  doing.  The 
story  of  the  kite,  the  new  world  of  electrical 
knowledge  and  power  just  opening;  his  reputation 
as  a  philosopher  and  a  wise  man,  his  simple  dress, 
shrewd  conversation,  keen  criticism,  and  inde- 


94  Silas  Deane 

pendent  judgment  attracted  the  admiration  of  a 
people,  tired  of  an  effete  civilization. 
The  Comte  de  Segur  says : 

It  would  be  difficult  to  describe  the  eagerness  and 
delight  with  which  these  agents  of  a  people  in  a  state 
of  insurrection  against  their  monarch  were  received  in 
France,  in  the  bosom  of  an  ancient  monarchy.  No 
thing  could  be  more  striking  than  the  contrast  be 
tween  the  luxury  of  our  capital,  the  elegance  of  our 
fashions,  the  magnificence  of  Versailles,  the  still  bril 
liant  remains  of  the  monarchical  pride  of  Louis,  and 
the  polished  and  superb  dignity  of  our  nobility.  .  . 
and  the  almost  rustic  apparel,  the  unpowdered  hair, 
the  plain  but  firm  demeanor,  the  free  and  direct 
language  of  the  envoys;  whose  antique  simplicity 
of  dress  and  appearance  seemed  to  have  introduced 
within  our  walls,  in  the  midst  of  the  effeminate  and 
servile  refinement  of  the  eighteenth  century,  sages 
contemporary  with  Plato,  or  republicans  of  the  age 
of  Cato  and  of  Fabius.  This  unexpected  spectacle 
produced  upon  us  a  greater  effect  in  consequence  of 
its  novelty,  and  because  it  occurred  precisely  at  the 
period  when  literature  and  philosophy  had  spread 
amongst  us  all  an  unusual  desire  for  reforms,  a  dis 
position  to  encourage  innovations,  and  the  seeds  of  an 
ardent  attachment  to  liberty. 

Parton  writes: 

Men  imagined  they  saw  in  Franklin  a  sage  of  an 
tiquity  come  back  to  give  austere  lessons  and  generous 
examples  to  the  moderns.  They  personified  in  him 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France        95 

the  Republic  of  which  he  was  the  representative  and 
the  legislator.  They  regarded  his  virtues  as  those  of 
his  countrymen,  and  even  judged  of  their  physi 
ognomy  by  the  imposing  and  serene  traits  of  his  own. 

The  French  police  gave  him  abundant  advertise 
ment: 

Dr.  Franklin  [says  a  sketch  of  the  time]  is  very  much 
run  after,  and  f£ted,  not  only  by  the  savants,  his 
confreres,  but  by  all  the  people  who  can  get  hold  of 
him.  This  Quaker  wears  the  full  costume  of  his  sect. 
He  has  an  agreeable  physiognomy,  spectacles  always 
on  his  eyes ;  but  little  hair, — a  fur  cap  is  always  on  his 
head.  He  wears  no  powder,  but  has  a  neat  air, 
linen  very  white,  and  a  brown  coat. 

When  he  reached  Paris  on  Dec.  3,  1776,  he  took 
lodgings  at  first  at  the  center  of  the  city  in  the 
H6tel  de  Hamburg,  but  he  soon  accepted  the  in 
vitation  of  Le  Ray  de  Chaumont,  a  wealthy  and 
ardent  friend  of  America,  to  take  up  his  abode  in  a 
more  retired  place  in  Passy,  half  a  mile  beyond 
the  outskirts  of  Paris.  There  for  nine  years  Dr. 
Franklin  lived. 

That  house  is  still  in  existence,  and  it  has  on  its 
f agade  an  inscription  which  informs  the  public  that 
it  was  the  home  of  Franklin. 

That  house  became  the  center  of  a  cordial 
and  extensive  hospitality.  Americans  were  there, 
whether  friendly  or  unfriendly.  There  Franklin 


96  Silas  Deane 

tried  to  make  Deane  and  Lee  forget  their  ani 
mosities.  There  was  entertained  Ralph  Izard,  a 
man  of  the  same  stripe  as  Arthur  Lee,  sent  over  as 
envoy  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  but  pre 
ferring  to  live  in  Paris  in  idleness;  whose  laziness 
and  meanness  at  length  wore  out  the  patience  of 
the  gentle  Franklin,  who  closed  his  house  to  a 
man  so  unprincipled  and  virulent. 
John  Adams  says: 

Franklin's  reputation  was  more  universal  than  that  of 
Leibnitz  or  Newton,  Frederick  or  Voltaire;  and  his 
character  more  esteemed  than  any  or  all  of  them.  .  .  . 
His  name  was  familiar  to  government  and  people,  to 
kings,  courtiers,  nobility,  clergy,  and  philosophers,  as 
well  as  plebeians,  to  such  a  degree  that  there  was 
scarcely  a  peasant  or  a  citizen,  a  valet-de-chambre, 
coachman,  or  footman,  a  lady's  chamber-maid,  or  a 
scullion  in  the  kitchen,  who  was  not  familiar  with  it, 
or  who  did  not  consider  him  as  a  friend  to  humankind. 
If  a  collection  could  be  made  of  all  the  Gazettes  of 
Europe  for  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
a  greater  number  of  panegyrical  paragraphs  upon  "le 
grande  Franklin"  would  appear,  it  is  believed,  than 
upon  any  other  man  who  ever  lived. 

Medallions,   busts,   medals  of  every  size  and 
style  appeared.     Franklin  wrote  his  daughter: 

A  variety  of  impressions  has  been  made  of  different 
sizes:  some  large  enough  to  be  set  in  the  lids  of  snuff 
boxes;  some  so  small  as  to  be  worn  in  rings;  and  the 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France       97 

number  sold  is  incredible.  These,  with  the  pictures, 
busts,  and  printings  (of  which  copies  upon  copies  are 
spread  everywhere),  have  made  your  father's  face  as 
well  known  as  that  of  the  moon. 

Franklin  and  Deane  were  together  at  Passy,  on 
friendliest  terms,  and  soon  Lee  came  over  from 
England  and  took  lodgings  in  another  part  of  the 
city,  scornful  of  the  French,  eager  to  push  forward 
his  own  interests,  bent  on  mischief. 

Arthur  Lee  had  two  brothers  in  Congress,  one 
of  whom  was  Richard  Henry  Lee,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  Arthur  Lee  was 
born  Dec.  20,  1740,  three  years  after  Deane.  His 
early  education  was  finished  at  Eton  in  England, 
whence  he  went  to  Edinburgh  to  prepare  for  the 
medical  profession.  After  taking  his  degree,  he 
traveled  in  Holland  and  Germany,  and  then  re 
turned  to  Virginia  to  practice.  Not  satisfied  with 
the  medical  profession  he  went  to  London  and  be 
gan  to  study  law  at  the  Temple,  about  the  year 
1766. 

Sparks  is  our  authority  for  the  statement  that 
Lee  was  hostile  to  Franklin  from  an  early  date, 
and  while  he  did  not  secure  his  downfall  as  he  did 
that  of  Deane,  he  did  his  best  to  compass  it. 

While  Franklin  was  agent  for  Massachusetts  at 
the  Court  of  London,  Arthur  Lee  was  nominated 


98  Silas  Deane 

to  be  his  successor  when  he  should  retire.  Cir 
cumstances  detained^the  philosopher  longer  in 
England  than  was  expected,  and  Lee  grew  im 
patient,  and  fearing,  as  he  said,  that  Franklin 
would  never  depart  until  he  was  gathered  to  his 
fathers,  resorted  to  the  dishonorable  artifice  of 
writing  letters  to  one  of  the  principal  men  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  filled  with  charges 
against  him  regarding  his  official  conduct,  charges 
as  destitute  of  foundation  as  of  candor  and 
propriety. 

In  October,  1777,  Lee  wrote  to  his  brothers  and 
to  Samuel  Adams  that  foreign  affairs  were  in  con 
fusion,  and  that  he  would  "prefer  being  at  the 
Court  of  France,  the  great  wheel  by  which  all  the 
other  wheels  are  moved,"  and  he  recommended 
that  Franklin  be  sent  to  Vienna  and  Deane  to 
Holland. 

At  one  time,  he  intimated  that  Franklin  had 
sent  out  a  public  vessel  on  a  "crusing  job,"  in 
the  profits  of  which  he  was  to  share;  at  another 
time,  he  said  that  Franklin  and  an  American 
banker  in  Paris  were  in  league  with  each  other  to 
defraud  the  public  and  put  money  into  their  own 
pockets. 

Deane  had  some  dealings  with  Lee  before  the 
latter  was  appointed  Commissioner,  and  in  a  way 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France       99 

which  did  not  commend  the  Virginian  to  the 
Yankee.  In  the  summer  of  1776,  Deane  wrote: 

I  received  a  letter  from  Arthur  Lee,  then  at  London, 
desiring  me  to  inform  Congress  that  Joseph  Reed  and 
John  Langdon  were  dangerous  persons,  and  to  put 
Congress  on  guard.  Stranger  as  I  was  to  Arthur 
Lee's  character,  his  letter  greatly  surprised  me,  the 
more  so  as  he  wrote  in  the  most  positive  terms,  with 
out  giving  me  the  reasons  for  the  charge.  I  replied 
that  I  could  by  no  means  comply  with  his  request, 
that  I  had  long  been  personally  acquainted  with  the 
gentlemen,  and  had  the  fullest  confidence  in  their 
integrity  and  zeal  for  America,  therefore  I  could  not 
think  of  transmitting  such  information  without  proof; 
that  I  knew  they  held  important  posts  in  Congress, 
therefore,  if  the  charge  could  be  supported,  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  transmitting  evidence,  but  I  trembled 
at  the  thought  of  giving  Congress  suspicions  of  its 
most  confidential  servants  without  certain  proof;  the 
consequences  must  be  pernicious  to  the  public  and 
fatal  to  the  individual. 

Some  time  afterward  Lee  visited  Paris,  and 
Deane  urged  him  to  give  him  the  grounds  for  his 
letter  concerning  Reed  and  Langdon.  Lee  said 
that  as  for  Reed  he  really  knew  nothing  more  than 
that  he  formerly  corresponded  with  Lord  Dart 
mouth,  and  Reed's  brother-in-law  had  an  inter 
view  with  his  lordship.  But  as  for  Langdon  he 
had  no  doubt  about  his  disloyalty,  as  he  had  spent 
the  last  winter  in  London  and  was  frequently  with 


TOO  Silas  Deane 

the  Ministry.  Deane  replied  that  as  to  the  latter 
he  had  spent  the  last  winter  in  Philadelphia,  and 
as  to  the  former  he  did  not  think  such  vague 
and  inconclusive  circumstances  were  sufficient  to 
authorize  the  sending  general  charges  to  Congress ; 
that  charges  of  such  a  complexion,  and  coming 
from  such  a  person  as  himself,  must  forever  damn 
the  reputation  of  those  accused,  and  alarm  and 
embarrass  the  public.  To  this  Lee  replied  that 
he  knew  that  a  person  named  Langdon  had  been 
in  London  the  last  winter,  and  therefore  he  wrote, 
supposing  him  to  be  John  Langdon  of  Ports 
mouth;  that  he  believed  he  was  too  suspicious  at 
times,  and  was  glad  Deane  had  not  sent  forward 
the  letter. 

When  the  three  Commissioners  had  gotten 
settled,  they  called  on  Vergennes,  who  assured 
them  of  his  friendliness  so  far  as  the  treaty  obli 
gations  with  England  would  permit.  He  criti 
cized  Beaumarchais  for  letting  Deane  have  the 
supplies  and  seemed  to  blame  the  imaginary  firm, 
Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co.,  and  Franklin  and  Lee 
determined  to  let  Deane  engineer  the  business  end 
of  their  commission. 

It  was  a  trying  time,  the  Amphitrite  had  re 
turned  to  port  because  of  head-winds  and  lack  of 
fresh  meat  for  the  gallant  Coudray.  Deane  found 


Signs  the  Treaty  with:ftawe  j'^ip-i; 

Beaumarchais  ill  in  bed  with  fatigue  and  vexation. 
"I  never  had  been,"  writes  Deane,  "in  so  critical 
and  distressed  a  situation.  All  the  difficulties 
before  were  as  nothing."  The  stores  of  thirty 
thousand  stands  of  arms,  near  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pieces  of  brass  artillery,  clothing  and  powder, 
were  ready  at  the  ports;  ships  were  ready  at  ex 
pense;  accounts  of  the  critical  situation  of  the 
armies  in  America,  their  misfortunes,  distress,  and 
want  of  supplies,  together  with  the  coolness  and 
reserve  of  the  Minister,  almost  put  Deane  into 
desperation.  Something  must  be  done;  Deane 
saw  that  his  only  hope  was  through  Beaumarchais 
and  he  assured  him  that,  however  decided  the 
opposition  of  the  city  and  the  Court,  there  must  be 
no  desertion  of  the  cause,  and  the  business  of 
securing  supplies  for  the  American  army  must 
not  fall  through;  between  Beaumarchais  and 
Deane,  the  Amphitrite  was  cleared  as  for  the 
West  Indies,  with  instructions  to  the  captain  to 
head  for  Portsmouth,  and  he  arrived  there  in 
April  just  as  the  troops  were  taking  the  field. 

It  was  difficult  and  expensive  to  get  the  stores 
to  the  seaports;  some  of  the  cannon  were  drawn 
two  hundred  miles;  British  agents  were  every 
where  on  the  watch;  the  moment  war  supplies 
began  to  move,  remonstrance  and  counter  orders 


Silas  Deane 


sprang  up.  Deane  carried  the  burden  of  buying 
and  forwarding  supplies,  a  task  for  which  he  was 
better  qualified  than  for  politics.  Franklin  was 
past  seventy  when  he  went  to  Paris,  and  he  had 
neither  experience  nor  taste  for  business  and 
accounts,  and  he  was  quite  willing  that  younger 
men  should  attend  to  details.  Lee  was  away  from 
Paris  much  of  the  time,  in  Spain,  Holland,  and 
Berlin,  vainly  seeking  help  ;  when  he  was  in  Paris 
Deane  talked  over  the  contracts  with  him  as  he 
always  did  with  Franklin,  but  affairs  ran  more 
smoothly  with  the  Commissioners  when  Lee  was 
out  of  town.  Here  is  a  sample  of  his  mental 
breadth  and  good  sense:  Deane  was  negotiating 
with  a  French  contractor,  a  M.  Holker,  for 
several  thousand  suits  of  clothes  for  the  army,  and 
after  talking  it  over  together  they  decided  that  it 
would  be  wise,  for  the  severe  climate  of  America,  to 
make  the  coats  longer  than  usual,  in  order  to  lap 
over  the  trousers  for  the  better  protection  of  the 
men;  it  was  argued  that  the  expense  would  be 
slight  as  it  would  require  only  one  sixth  more 
cloth  and  four  extra  buttons,  but  when  Deane 
and  Holker  talked  it  over  with  Lee,  the  latter 
objected  on  the  ground  of  expense;  so  strenuous 
was  the  opposition,  that  Holker  generously 
offered  to  bear  the  extra  cost  himself,  when  Lee 


Signs  the  Treaty  with     rSrxcer-    103 

answered  that  he  had  another  objection,  that  it 
would  increase  the  weight  of  the  coat  and  thus 
fatigue  the  soldier!  It  is  not  strange  that  after 
that  the  French  contractors  declined  to  discuss 
their  contracts  with  Lee. 

The  autumn  of  1776  was  discouraging:  Bur- 
goyne  was  on  his  way  toward  Albany  to  cut  the 
eastern  colonies  off  from  the  southern ;  Gen.  Howe 
was  pushing  on  toward  Philadelphia,  and  the 
American  forces  were  retreating;  the  French 
Ministry  was  wary ;  sometimes  the  French  assur 
ances  of  help  were  scanty.  Deane  went  to 
Fontainebleau  with  a  fixed  resolution,  when  the 
fortunes  of  the  Continental  army  were  ebbing  and 
credit  almost  gone.  The  appearance  of  the  per 
sistent  Yankee  Commissioner  gave  the  Ministry 
decided  uneasiness,  for  powerful  English  officers 
were  on  the  watch,  and  the  future  of  the  American 
cause  was  cloudy.  They  asked  Deane  to  wait 
till  they  heard  from  Spain;  he  knew  it  was  an 
excuse  to  hear  from  America;  the  last  news  from 
the  seat  of  war  was  discouraging,  the  next  might 
mean  ruin  for  the  insurgents ;  but  notwithstanding 
the  hostile  looks,  Deane  declared  his  deter 
mination  to  remain  there  until  he  obtained  a 
positive  answer  to  his  request  for  money.  He 
insisted  on  a  short  interview  with  Vergennes,  he 


*94  Silas  Deane 

was  informed  that  the  courier  had  not  returned 
from  Spain,  and  it  was  desired  that  he  should  retire 
from  Fontainebleau,  where  the  person  and  business 
of  any  stranger,  especially  an  American  Com 
missioner,  could  not  escape  observation. 

Deane  replied  that  it  was  within  the  power  of  the 
Minister  to  free  himself  from  any  uneasiness  on  his 
account  by  granting  his  request,  and  probably  of 
all  future  solicitude  concerning  America  by  the 
absolute  refusal  of  it,  but  that  he  could  not  think 
of  returning  to  Paris  without  an  explicit  answer. 

As  we  look  at  the  situation,  the  stand  which 
Deane  took  was  indispensable,  for  while  the  French 
treasury  was  impoverished,  the  state  of  affairs  in 
America  was  desperate;  even  Franklin  advised 
stopping  the  execution  of  the  contract,  and  selling 
the  goods  on  hand,  to  pay  the  pressing  debts  which 
the  Commissioners  had  contracted. 

Deane's  earnest  and  convincing  plea  was 
successful,  he  was  told  that  three  million  livres 
would  be  furnished  Grand,  our  banker,  on  our 
account  in  quarterly  payments  the  next  year, 
and  perhaps  something  from  Spain. 

This  did  not  clear  the  debt ;  the  cost  of  supplies 
had  been  so  large,  the  prize  money  so  trifling, 
the  expense  of  refitting  so  great,  the  money 
spent  on  released  prisoners  so  considerable ;  but  it 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France      105 

enabled  the  Commissioners  to  go  on  with  the  con 
tracts  for  supplies,  though  news  of  the  defeat 
at  Brandywine  and  the  progress  of  Burgoyne 
in  Canada  deepened  their  anxiety. 

It  is  not  strange  that  Vergennes  should  have 
been  so  cautious;  the  evacuation  of  Ticonteroga 
and  Crown  Point  laid  the  road  to  our  frontier  open, 
without  a  fort  or  redoubt  to  impede.  After  the 
affair  at  Brandywine,  the  two  capital  cities  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  were  practically  in  the 
hands  of  the  British,  as  were  also  the  town  and 
harbor  of  Newport ;  a  victorious  army  at  Albany 
threatened  to  separate  New  England  from  the 
other  colonies ;  British  superiority  at  sea  threatened 
to  destroy  our  commerce,  and  if  England  should 
declare  war  on  France  the  prospects  of  the  colo 
nists  were  forlorn  enough.  In  after  years  Deane 
said  that  he  had  ceased  to  criticize  the  French 
Ministry  for  its  lack  of  zeal  in  our  time  of  distress. 

September,  October,  and  November,  1777, 
passed.  The  general  opinion  in  France  was  that 
the  Americans  would  be  obliged  to  submit.  The 
Commissioners  were  anxious  to  have  France  de 
clare  for  America,  believing  that  such  declaration 
would  close  the  war,  but  no  word  came  from  the 
Court. 

The  Commissioners  and  the  French  Ministry  had 


io6  Silas  Deane 

no  communication  by  writing  even,  except  by 
petitions  and  requests  to  which  a  verbal  answer 
was  sometimes  given,  but  more  commonly  there 
was  no  answer;  the  French  authorities  at  Nantes 
restored  prize  ships  to  English  owners ;  when  the 
Amphitrite  returned  from  America,  her  captain 
was  imprisoned  for  carrying  supplies  to  the  in 
surgents. 

In  December,  the  whole  situation  changed  when 
J.  L.  Austin  arrived  from  Boston  with  the  reviving 
and  important  news  of  the  surrender  of  General 
Burgoyne.  "  A  sovereign  cordial  to  the  dying, "  it 
roused  and  reanimated  the  friends  of  America  in 
every  part  of  Europe. 

During  all  this  dreary  period,  the  trials  of  the 
Commissioners  were  increased  by  the  suspicious 
and  uneasy  disposition  of  Arthur  Lee.  Deane 
writes:  "From  the  first  Mr.  Lee  gave  Dr.  Franklin 
and  me  much  trouble  which  was  constantly  in 
creasing;  and  the  dissatisfaction  with  and  con 
tempt  for  the  French  nation  in  general,  which  he 
took  no  pains  to  conceal,  often  gave  us  pain,  and 
rendered  himself  suspected  by  many. " 

The  report  of  Burgoyne's  defeat  was  followed 
by  interviews  between  the  Commissioners  and  the 
French  Ministry  concerning  a  treaty.  In  that 
time  of  strain,  so  violent  and  irrational  was  the 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France      107 

disposition  of  Lee,  that  Franklin  was  of  the 
opinion  that  his  head  was  affected.  After  much 
discussion  the  treaty  was  signed  at  Passy  on 
Feb.  6,  1778,  with  the  understanding  that  for  the 
present  it  should  be  kept  a  secret. 

On  the  night  of  the  day  the  treaties  were  signed, 
Deane  noted  that  Lee's  private  secretary  started 
hastily  for  England,  and  in  a  day  or  two  Fox 
spoke  in  Parliament  of  the  treaty  as  signed. 
Lee's  responsibility  for  this  has  been  declared  un- 
proven  by  a  writer  of  some  standing,  and  Durand, 
in  his  New  Materials  on  the  American  War, 
says  that  Lee's  correspondence  with  Congress  is 
a  series  of  injurious  insinuations,  implying  that 
Franklin  was  little  better  than  a  robber,  while 
alliance  between  France  and  the  United  States  was 
due  to  him  alone.  More  than  that,  for  since  De 
Lomenie  examined  the  documents  in  the  French 
Archives,  records  have  been  unearthed  which 
go  to  show  that  Lee  was  substantially  a  traitor. 
The  moment  he  was  told  that  Louis  XVI  had 
accepted  the  treaty  of  commerce  and  friendship 
with  the  United  States,  and  when  he  was  about 
to  sign  it  with  Franklin  and  Deane,  Lee  wrote 
Shelburne  and  advised  him  that  "if  England 
wanted  to  prevent  closer  ties  between  France  and 
the  United  States  she  must  not  delay."  M. 


io8  Silas  Deane 

Doniel  states  that  Lee  was  in  the  pay  of  the  party 
opposed  to  Lord  North.  We  have  no  reason  to 
question  the  honesty  or  accuracy  of  these  men, 
who  have  examined  the  full  records  in  Paris,  but 
Arthur  Lee  has  enough  to  answer  for  without  the 
charge  of  traitor. 

Thus  was  effected  the  second  important  object 
which  the  Commissioners  had  in  view.  Needed 
supplies  had  been  secured,  and  nearly  all  had  been 
shipped,  and  all  save  a  part  of  one  cargo  reached 
Portsmouth  in  safety,  and  now  treaties  of  friend 
ship  and  commerce  had  been  signed. 

Deane  determined  to  devote  his  attention  to  the 
task  of  securing  a  loan  from  Holland ;  he  had  been 
in  correspondence  with  men  of  rank  there,  and  had 
been  assured  of  assistance  of  men  of  standing  in 
France;  the  business  of  buying  and  forwarding 
supplies  had  been  conducted  so  covertly,  and  in  so 
many  places,  that  two  or  three  months  would  be 
consumed  in  collecting  the  accounts,  and  Deane 
planned  spending  that  time  in  Holland,  but  on 
March  4,  he  received  a  letter  from  Lovell  with 
the  order  of  Congress  of  Dec.  8,  1777,  requesting 
him  to  return  to  America  to  report  to  Congress  on 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  Europe. 

Knowing  what  he  did  of  the  mischievous  and 
underhanded  activity  of  Lee,  the  active  mind 


Signs  the  Treaty  with  France      109 

and  not  too  sanguine  temper  of  Deane  may  have 
given  him  some  uneasiness  at  the  peremptory 
summons. 

He  had  long  been  under  a  heavy  strain;  in 
addition  to  the  financial  and  political  demands 
made  upon  him,  a  great  bereavement  had  come 
into  his  home,  of  which  we  are  reminded  in  the 
following  letter  to  C.  W.  F.  Dumas,  written  Oct. 
1,1777: 

I  feel  myself  sensibly  affected  on  receiving  your 
kind  and  friendly  condolence  on  my  misfortune; 
though  the  situation  of  my  country  is  sufficient 
to  engross  my  whole  attention,  yet  the  loss  I  have 
met  with  is  not  less  heavy  on  my  spirits,  nor  does  it 
fall  the  lighter  on  me  for  coming  attended  with  public 
misfortunes  and  distresses. 

The  explanation  of  this  sorrowful  letter  is 
found  in  the  following  item  from  the  Connecticut 
Gazette  of  New  London  of  June  27,  1777. 

"Died  at  Wethersfield,  after  a  long  indis 
position,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Deane,  Consort  of  Silas 
Deane,  Esquire,  now  in  France,  and  daughter  of 
Gurdon  Saltonstall  of  this  town. " 

As  Deane  turned  his  face  homeward  after  two 
years'  absence,  he  must  have  felt  a  deep  sense  of 
satisfaction  with  the  work  accomplished,  which 
no  doubt  went  far  to  relieve  the  shadow  which 
was  approaching. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  RECALL 

VV  7E  have  seen  how  the  anxious  summer  and 
autumn  of  1777  were  followed  by  the  good 
news  that  Burgoyne  had  surrendered. 

On  Oct.  31,  at  ten  in  the  morning,  the  brigan- 
tine  Perch  sailed  from  Long  Wharf  in  Boston,  carry 
ing  J.  L.  Austin  of  that  city  with  messages  from 
the  Massachusetts  Council  announcing  the  surren 
der  at  Saratoga  and  the  capture  of  six  thousand 
men. 

It  was  the  first  great  victory  for  America,  and 
is  reckoned  by  Creasy  as  worthy  of  a  place  among 
the  fifteen  decisive  battles  of  the  world. 

The  winds  and  tides  sped  the  happy  vessel,  and 
in  thirty  days  she  reached  the  French  coast.  On 
o,  Austin  announced  the  news  in  France. 


Leaving  Nantes'  in  a  chaise,  drawn  by  three 
horses  abreast,  he  hastened  to  Versailles,  and 
thence  to  Passy.  As  he  drove  into  the  courtyard 
he  was  met  by  Franklin  who  asked,  "  Sir,  is  Phila 

delphia  taken?"     "It  is,  "was  the  reply,  "but,  Sir, 

no 


The  Trying  Recall  in 

I  have  greater  news  than  that :  General  Burgoyne 
and  his  whole  army  are  prisoners. " 

Beaumarchais  was  then  visiting  the  Commis 
sioners  at  Passy,  and  he  started  for  Paris  with 
such  eagerness  to  carry  the  news  that  the  carriage 
tipped  over  and  he  nearly  broke  his  neck.  But 
the  casualty  did  not  weaken  his  joy.  "My  right 
arm  is  cut,"  he  said,  "the  bones  of  my  neck  are 
nearly  crushed,  but  the  charming  news  from 
America  is  a  balm  to  my  wounds. " 

Paul  Jones,  commander  of  the  Ranger,  and 
founder  of  the  American  navy,  had  a  part  in  the 
celebration.  On  arriving  in  Nantes  this  brave 
corsair  found  himself  one  of  the  officers  of  a  recog 
nized  Republic  and  hearing  from  the  French  Ad 
miral  that  his  salute  would  be  returned,  a  little 
after  sunset  the  Ranger  discharged  thirteen  guns 
in  honor  of  the  French  Administration,  and 
in  reply  nine  guns  saluted  the  flag  of  the  United 
States. 

On  hearing  the  news,  Vergennes  was  as  im 
patient  to  close  the  treaty  as  he  had  previously 
been  reluctant,  saying:  "The  power  which  first 
recognizes  American  independence  will  gather  all 
the  fruits  of  the  war.  France  must  anticipate  such 
action  on  England's  part  by  greater  speed  in 
making  the  colonists  our  friends. " 


ii2  Silas  Deane 

A  ship  was  soon  on  its  way  to  carry  the  joyous 
news  that  Louis  had  decided  to  recognize  the  new 
Republic.  The  Commissioners  wrote  that  the 
news  of  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  had  called 
forth  universal  joy  in  France,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
victory  of  their  own  troops,  as  it  was  a  victory  won 
by  arms  from  its  arsenals. 

While  the  vessel  was  bearing  the  welcome  news 
to  America,  another  passed  over  to  France,  bearing 
a  very  different  message  for  one  of  the  Commis 
sioners,  the  man  who  had  represented  his  country 
there  the  longest,  whose  fidelity,  energy,  and  suc 
cess  were  unquestioned. 

At  last  the  succession  of  underhanded  and  dis 
paraging  letters  of  Arthur  Lee  bore  fruit,  and 
Deane  must  turn  from  a  life  of  incessant  toil  and 
care  to  years  of  exhausting  and  shameful  facing 
a  fogbank  of  malice  and  lies. 

When  Deane  learned  of  the  action  of  Congress 
he  consulted  Franklin,  who  said  that,  notwith 
standing  the  unsettled  state  of  the  accounts,  it 
would  be  best  for  him  to  go  at  once,  that  his  stay  in 
America  would  not  be  for  any  length  of  time,  and 
he  would  be  back  for  the  final  settlement. 

Deane  then  waited  on  Vergennes  and  told  him  of 
the  recall :  he  found  him  friendly,  and  willing  to  do 
anything  in  his  power;  he  offered  the  use  of  a 


The  Trying  Recall  113 

frigate,  or  even  of  a  ship  of  the  line  to  be  put  into 
instant  readiness  to  carry  Deane  to  America,  and 
said  affairs  would  not  probably  suffer  in  his 
absence. 

Deane,  finding  it  a  favorable  opportunity,  took 
occasion  to  urge  an  immediate  declaration  of  the 
treaties  to  the  Court  of  London,  and  the  sending 
out  of  a  strong  squadron,  then  nearly  ready  at 
Toulon. 

After  several  interviews  on  the  subject  the  meas 
ure  was  adopted;  Deane  agreed  that  the  affair 
should  be  a  secret  on  his  part  except  to  Franklin 
and  Dr.  Bancroft ;  the  fleet  was  ordered  to  go  direct 
to  Delaware  Bay,  and  it  carried  four  skillful 
captains,  who  were  familiar  with  the  coast  of 
the  United  States. 

On  March  16,  Stormont  left  Paris  for  London, 
and  on  March  20,  the  American  Commissioners 
were  formally  presented  to  Louis  XVI  by  Ver- 
gennes.  It  was  not  as  brilliant  as  some  other 
ceremonies  which  have  occurred  at  Versailles, 
but  it  was  most  gratifying  to  Franklin,  Deane,  and 
Lee.  Franklin  was  less  affected  by  the  splendid 
decorations  of  the  palace  than  he  was  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  ill-kept,  and  sweeping  and  other  sani 
tary  provisions  neglected. 

After  the  reception,  the  Commissioners  called 


ii4  Silas  Deane 

to  pay  their  respects  to  Madame  de  Lafayette, 
who  was  at  Versailles,  and  to  assure  her  of  the 
gratitude  of  America  for  her  husband's  efforts. 
Then  they  dined  with  Vergennes. 

On  the  night  of  March  31,  Deane  started  for  the 
coast,  having  obtained  from  Grand  an  account 
of  all  the  moneys  received  or  paid  on  the  public 
account,  which  he  carried  with  him,  and  duplicates 
were  given  to  Franklin  and  Lee,  and  with  the 
former  he  left  the  public  papers  and  an  explanation 
of  the  accounts.  It  was  all  he  could  do  in  the 
little  time  at  his  disposal.  The  greater  part  of  the 
accounts  being  unsettled,  no  general  account 
could  be  made ;  moreover,  the  order  for  the  recall 
and  Lo veil's  letter,  which  contained  all  the  in 
formation  Deane  had  concerning  the  motives  for 
the  recall,  gave  him  to  understand  that  all  that 
was  desired  of  him  was  information  on  the  state 
of  affairs  in  Europe. 

I  by  no  means  concluded  [he  wrote  later]  that 
I  was  so  suddenly  called  upon  to  render  in  an  exact 
state  of  an  account  which  demanded  necessarily  a 
much  longer  time  to  complete  than  was  allowed  me  by 
the  terms  of  the  recall;  nor,  in  addition  to  this,  could 
I  possibly  conceive  that  the  nature  of  the  recall  was 
such  as  to  require  of  me  individually  an  account  of 
the  joint  transactions  in  money  matters  of  myself 
and  colleagues.  I  fell  in  with  M.  Gerard  on  my  way 


The  Trying  Recall  115 

to  Toulon,    and   we   embarked,  happy  at  the  great 
prospects  before  us. 

How  mistaken  Deane  was  in  his  bright  hopes 
will  appear  in  our  next  chapter,  but  here  is 
the  place  to  describe  the  events  which  led  to  the 
recall. 

We  have  seen  that  the  origin  of  active  French 
participation  in  our  struggle  was  in  the  con 
versations  of  Arthur  Lee  and  Beaumarchais,  in  the 
glowing  language  and  large  assurance  of  both  of 
those  ardent  and  imaginative  men.  When  Lee 
learned  that  Deane  had  been  appointed  rather 
than  himself  to  carry  those  brilliant  dreams  into 
reality,  he  was  bitterly  disappointed,  and  he  set 
at  work,  with  more  or  less  deliberation,  to  ruin 
Deane  and  secure  his  recall. 

He  visited  Deane;  he  tried  to  get  Deane  into 
trouble  in  the  matter  of  Reed  and  Langdon;  he 
burdened  the  mails  with  messages  to  his  friends  in 
Virginia  and  Philadelphia;  he  filled  the  mind  of 
every  man  in  Congress  he  could  influence  with 
suspicions  toward  his  colleague.  He  did  not  lim 
it  his  attack  to  Deane,  but  described  Franklin  as 
indolent,  incapable,  and  selfish. 

Lee  wrote  of  Franklin : 

His  abilities  are  great  and  reputation  high,  removed 


n6  Silas  Deane 

as  he  is  to  so  considerable  a  distance  from  the  obser 
vation  of  his  constituents.  If  he  is  not  guided  by 
principles  of  virtue  and  honor,  these  abilities  and 
that  reputation  may  produce  the  most  mischievous 
effects.  On  my  conscience  I  believe  him  to  be  under 
no  such  internal  restraint. 

Some  of  his  work  must  have  been  more  skillfully 
done  than  that.  Gerard  saw  his  insincerity  and 
meanness.  In  a  letter  to  Vergennes  of  Sept.  27, 
1779,  Gerard  characterized  the  statements  of  Lee 
as  "an  absurd  tissue  of  lies  and  sarcasms,  which 
can  do  nothing  but  compromise  those  who  have 
the  misfortune  to  be  in  correspondence  with  him. " 
We  are  not  to  think  of  Lee  as  lacking  in  patriot 
ism  and  devotion;  the  implications  of  Deane  and 
Beaumarchais,  that  he  was  willing  to  play  into  the 
hands  of  the  English,  we  would  rather  regard  as 
unproven,  though  there  are  suspicious  facts  which 
injure  him  if  they  do  not  convict;  but  there  is 
no  question  about  his  persistent  and  venomous 
endeavor  to  undermine  Deane.  Lee  was  a  man 
of  sanguine  temperament,  with  the  fire  and  vehe 
mence  of  a  Southerner ;  credulous,  hasty,  impetu 
ous,  he  allowed  his  conduct  to  be  shaped  by  a 
1  mind  corroded  by  suspicion,  jealousy,  and  dis- 
1  trust.  He  described  himself  clearly  when  he  told 
Deane  that  he  was  too  apt  to  yield  to  suspicions. 


The  Trying  Recall  117 

He  said:  "Unhappily  my  fate  has  thrown  me  into 
public  life,  and  the  impatience  of  my  nature  makes 
me  embark  in  it  with  an  impetuosity  and  impru 
dence  which  increase  the  evils  to  which  it  is  neces 
sarily  subject." 

Lee  was  a  man  of  wide  scholarship ;  his  opportu 
nities  for  education  were  of  the  highest  order  in 
England  and  Scotland.  While  a  student  he  had 
formed  friendships  with  such  men  as  Burke, 
Glynn,  and  Sir  William  Jones;  he  was  fearless, 
industrious,  and  tireless  in  the  pursuit  of  his  ob 
ject.  He  was  not  averse  to  storm  and  struggle  in 
pursuing  his  aims.  Alert,  energetic,  remorseless, 
everything  must  be  sacrificed  to  achieve  his  am 
bitions. 

Deane  was  by  nature  more  formal,  cold,  perhaps 
a  little  haughty,  and  when  he  came  in  contact  with 
the  enthusiastic,  ambitious,  acrimonious  Lee 
there  was  no  love  lost  on  either  side.  Deane  had 
the  Secret  Committee  behind  him,  and  the  pedestal 
of  a  high  office,  in  which  he  had  been  placed,  be 
neath  his  feet,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  let  Lee 
know  that  he  must  occupy  a  lower  position.  Five 
months  of  stiff  service  in  Paris  by  himself,  of 
necessity,  gave  Deane  a  purchase  which  he  was  not 
slow  to  make  the  most  of,  and  this  gave  little  joy 
to  Lee  who  wanted  that  central  office. 


u8  Silas  Deane 

It  is  perhaps  not  quite  fair  to  lay  upon  Lee  all 
the  blame  for  the  altercations  which  for  years  dis 
turbed  the  peace  of  Congress,  and  brought  such 
agony  upon  Deane.  The  conditions  in  which  they 
were  placed ;  the  two  men  were  so  unlike  each  other ; 
their  aims  so  antagonistic,  that  nothing  less  than 
'  an  angelic  visitation  or  a  daily  miracle  could  have 
averted  quarrels.  From  the  temper  of  letters 
written  and  words  uttered  it  appears  that  the 
angels  meddled  as  little  as  did  Franklin. 

The  first  trace  of  open  difficulty,  appears  in  a 
letter  from  Deane  to  Vergennes,  Aug.  22,  1776, 
from  which  we  quote:  "I  was  this  morning  in 
formed  of  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Arthur  Lee,  and  that 
he  would  be  in  Paris  to-morrow.  This  was  sur 
prising  to  me  as  I  knew  of  no  particular  affair  that 
might  bring  him  here.  " 

Four  weeks  later  Lee  was  back  in  London,  and 
three  months  later  he  returned  to  Paris  as  one  of 
the  three  Commissioners.  The  first  seeds  of  dis 
cord  were  planted,  a  condition  which  led  Congress 
by  a  large  majority  to  put  upon  its  journals  a 
resolve,  "that  suspicions  and  animosities  have 
"arisen  among  the  late  and  present  Commissioners, 
highly  prejudicial  to  the  honor  and  interest  of 
the  United  States." 

When  Franklin  and  Lee  joined  Deane,  there 


The  Trying  Recall  119 

were  peculiar  difficulties  in  the  way  of  forwarding 
supplies  to  America,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  last 
chapter :  Franklin  had  no  experience  in  commercial 
matters,  and  Lee  had  neither  experience  nor  sym 
pathy  with  Deane,  who  was  not  unwilling  to  shoul 
der  responsibility  and  complete  the  work  which 
he  had  so  well  begun. 

Moreover,  it  seemed  best  that  Lee  should  go  to 
other  countries  in  the  interest  of  the  insurgents. 
Lee  was  consulted  about  the  contracts  when 
possible,  but  it  was  not  fair  for  Lee  to  harass  the 
ears  of  Congress  with  clandestine  complaints 
about  Deane  because  he  did  not  give  him  a  voice 
in  the  contracts  with  Beaumarchais  for  supplies, 
Holker  for  clothing,  and  Montheu  for  ships,  at  a 
time  when  Deane  was  straining  every  nerve  to  get 
cannon  from  Strassburg,  muskets,  fusils,  powder, 
and  shot  from  magazines  in  the  interior  to  Bor 
deaux,  Havre,  Dunkirk,  and  Nantes. 

It  was  a  difficult  achievement  to  complete  the 
task  at  all,  in  view  of  the  repeated  delays  and  inter 
positions  of  the  French  Government,  the  hostility 
and  complaints  of  the  English  officers,  and  the 
scarcity  of  money;  one  is  tempted  to  use  strong 
words  to  characterize  Lee  for  criticizing  Deane  to 
members  of  Congress  in  the  bitterest  and  most 
unsparing  terms,  because  of  his  unbusinesslike 


i2o  Silas  Deane 

methods,  and  the  confusion  of  the  accounts,  which 
of  necessity  attended  affairs  which  had  to  be  con 
ducted  with  stealth  and  concealment. 

Another  element  in  Lee's  discontent  seems  to 
have  been  the  fact  that,  when  he  returned  from 
Prussia,  he  found  that  Deane  was  so  acceptable  at 
Versailles,  was  so  well  received  by  the  Ministers, 
was  so  highly  esteemed  among  other  men  of 
eminence,  was  in  such  correspondence  with  in 
fluential  men  near  and  far,  that  he  was  wielding 
great  power,  and  likely  to  exert  still  larger  in 
fluence,  while  Lee  was  comparatively  unknown. 

A  man  of  Lee's  disposition,  who  considered 
himself  as  one  of  the  prime  movers  in  the  Rev 
olution,  did  not  enjoy  the  situation:  and  it  is 
barely  possible  that  Deane  did  not  apply  any 
balm  to  the  wounded  ambition  of  his  unhappy 
colleague. 

Then  came  the  adventure  of  Lee's  mind  in  a 
field  in  which  he  was  an  expert.  How  much 
sincerity  there  was  in  his  work  of  studied  and 
persistent  defamation  we  cannot  say.  It  is  chari 
table  to  believe  that  he  so  brooded  over  the  situa 
tion,  so  fed  his  diseased  imagination,  so  nursed 
his  wounded  and  disappointed  feelings,  that  he 
came  to  view  himself  as  a  martyr,  and  Deane  and 
his  friends  as  his  deadly  enemies. 


The  Trying  Recall  121 

Perhaps  he  really  believed  that  Beaumarchais 
and  Deane  were  making  vast  sums  of  money  at 
the  expense  of  the  public.  The  plots  and  strata 
gems  in  his  own  unwholesome  mind  may  have 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  believe  that  selfish 
deliriums  controlled  the  Yankee  Commissioner. 

He  seems  to  have  believed  that  a  combination 
was  writing  paragraphs  to  his  discredit,  and  pro 
curing  their  insertion  in  European  Gazettes;  also 
writing  letters  to  men  of  influence  in  America, 
and  that  the  head  of  this  powerful  conspiracy  was 
Deane. 

In  such  a  state  of  mind,  this  victim  of  delusion 
or  malice,  or  both,  began  to  write  to  friends  in 
America  about  Deane.  Lee  had  two  brothers  in 
Congress;  one  of  them,'  R.  H.  Lee,  was  a  man  of 
decided  weight;  the  Adamses  from  Massachu 
setts  were  warm  friends  of  the  Lees,  and  before 
long  these  and  others,  like  Laurens,  Duer,  Tom 
Paine,  and  Izard,  were  hard  on  the  track  of  the 
doomed  man. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  Arthur  Lee's 
letters  to  his  brother,  R.  H.  Lee,  dated  nine  days 
after  the  treaty  was  signed : 

My  absence  and  the  care  with  which  things  have 
been  concealed  from  me  have  disqualified  me  to  judge 
of  the  truth  of  the  suspicions,  which  are  general,  of 


122  Silas  Deane 

Deane's  having  had  douceurs  from  the  public  con 
tractors  and  others  in  order  to  conciliate  his  patron 
age;  and  that  he  is  in  a  sort  of  partnership  with 
Holker,  Sabatier,  Montheu,  and  others,  in  which  the 
public  money  and  influence  are  made  subservient 
to  private  profit. 

Again : 

Whenever  he  is  removed  from  the  control  of  money, 
the  truth  will  come  out  fast  enough,  and  the  persons 
who,  under  his  auspices,  have  been  defrauding  the 
public,  may  be  brought  to  account.  Upon  the  whole, 
these  are  dangerous  men,  and  capable  of  any  wicked 
ness  to  avenge  themselves  on  those  who  are  suspected 
of  counteracting  their  purposes.  The  calling  to  ac 
count  for  money  we  have  expended,  the  taking  of  the 
expenditure  out  of  their  hands  for  the  future,  or  the 
removal  of  him  who  has  misapplied  it,  would  lead  to 
discovery  and  proofs  before  time  has  enabled  him  to 
prevent  them. 

Can  anything  be  more  unfair  than  such  an 
attack  upon  a  colleague  concerning  matters,  of 
whose  details  the  accuser  did  not  even  profess 
to  have  any  accurate  knowledge?  How  could 
such  insinuations  do  other  than  create  preju 
dice  and  affix  a  stigma?  If  Lee  believed  these 
charges  to  be  well  grounded,  it  was  his  duty  to 
discover  the  proofs;  and  it  certainly  was  his  duty 
to  keep  his  suspicions  to  himself  until  he  could 
issue  them  with  the  facts  to  support  them. 


The  Trying  Recall  123 

Furthermore,  simple  decency  demanded  that  he 
should  present  the  accusations  first  of  all  to 
Deane  himself,  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity, 
if  possible,  to  explain  them. 

A  charge  on  mere  suspicion  is  a  calumny,  and  it 
is  hard  to  find  language  strong  enough  to  condemn 
the  criminality  of  a  man  who  is  in  daily  inter 
course  with  a  colleague,  in  an  office  which  implies 
mutual  confidence  and  responsibility,  and  at  the 
same  time  is  doing  all  he  can  to  destroy  his  in 
fluence  and  break  down  his  reputation  among  the 
men,  three  thousand  miles  away,  who  were  re 
sponsible  for  keeping  him  in  office,  and  who  had 
no  opportunity  to  sift  the  facts  and  learn  the 
evidence. 

Lee  wrote  to  several  men  with  greater  latitude 
of  censure  than  the  extracts  we  have  given ;  these 
letters  were  shown  to  others,  and  the  effect  could 
not  be  other  than  in  the  highest  degree  injurious. 

So  strong  and  malicious  was  Lee's  slander  of 
Franklin  that,  but  for  the  influence  of  Gerard,  it 
is  probable  he  too  would  have  been  unseated. 

Deane's  fate  was  fixed  by  a  selfishness,  a  cruelty, 
an  avarice  which  the  unfortunate  object  of  Lee's 
meanness  did  not  understand,  until  he  had  vainly 
and  for  years  struggled  and  fought. 

Every  breeze  that  wafted  his  vessel  homeward 


124  Silas  Deane 

bore  him  nearer  a  nest  of  serpents,  which  the 
cunning  and  unprincipled  Lee  was  industriously 
hatching.  Those  who  were  not  convinced  that 
Deane  was  in  the  wrong,  would  have  their  con 
fidence  shaken  by  the  bold  insinuations  of  a  man  so 
able,  so  well-posted,  and  so  competent  to  under 
stand  the  whole  situation  as  Lee.  Men  of  caution 
and  good  judgment  would  find  it  easy  to  suspect 
Deane  on  the  repeated  declarations  of  a  colleague 
who  unblushingly  linked  his  name  with  the  names 
of  three  eminent  French  merchants  as  men  in 
league  to  defraud  the  government. 

This  is  the  underside  of  the  story  of  Depie's 
recall.  Deane  suspected  that  Lee  was  working 
against  him,  but  he  felt  a  certain  security  in  the 
fact  that  he  possessed  the  confidence  of  Franklin, 
who  was,  as  he  said,  his  "  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend." 

Deane  carried  with  him  a  letter  from  Franklin 
to  the  president  of  Congress,  dated  March  31, 
1778,  as  follows: 

My  colleague,  Mr.  Deane,  being  recalled  by  Con 
gress,  and  no  reasons  given  that  yet  appeared  here, 
it  is  apprehended  to  be  the  effect  of  some  misrepresen 
tations  from  an  enemy  or  two  at  Paris  and  at  Nantes. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  he  will  be  able  clearly  to  justify 
himself;  but  having  lived  intimately  with  him  more 


The  Trying  Recall  125 

than  fifteen  months,  the  greatest  part  of  the  time  in  the 
same  house,  and  a  constant  witness  of  his  public  con 
duct,  I  cannot  avoid  giving  this  testimony,  though  un 
asked,  that  I  esteem  him  a  faithful,  active,  and  able 
minister,  who  to  my  knowledge  has  done  in  various 
ways  great  and  important  services  to  his  country, 
whose  interests  I  wish  may  always  by  every  one  in 
her  employ  be  as  much  and  as  efficiently  promoted. 

The  opinion  of  Beaumarchais  is  to  the  same 
effect.  In  a  secret  memoir  for  the  ministers  of  the 
king  he  wrote: 

By  character  and  by  ambition  Mr.  Arthur  Lee  was 
first  jealous  of  Mr.  Deane.  He  finished  by  becoming 
his  enemy,  which  always  happens  to  small  minds, 
more  occupied  in  supplanting  their  rivals  than  in 
surpassing  them  in  merit. 

The  connections  of  Mr.  Lee  in  England,  and  two 
brothers  whom  he  has  in  Congress,  have  made  him 
recently  an  important  and  dangerous  man. 

His  plan  has  always  been  to  prefer  between  France 
and  England  the  power  which  would  most  surely 
bring  him  to  fortune.  England  has  some  advantages 
for  him.  He  has  often  explained  himself  on  the  sub 
ject  in  his  libertine  suppers.  But  to  succeed,  it  was 
necessary  to  get  rid  of  a  colleague  so  formidable  by 
his  patriotism  as  Mr.  Deane.  This  he  has  accom 
plished  by  causing  him  to  be  suspected  in  several 
points  of  view  by  Congress.  Having  learned  that  the 
American  army  regarded  the  foreign  military  officers 
with  displeasure,  he  threw  poison  into  the  zeal  of 
his  associate  who  sent  them.  At  the  same  time,  the 


126  Silas  Deane 

conduct  of  some  Frenchmen,  who  escaped  from  our 
Islands,  justifying  perhaps  the  repugnance  they  felt 
for  our  officers  in  America,  Mr.  Lee  profited  by  these 
dispositions  to  affirm  to  Congress  that  Mr.  Deane 
had,  on  his  own  motion,  and  against  good  advice, 
sent  these  officers,  who  were  as  expensive  as  useless 
to  the  Republic. 

A  second  motive  for  the  recall  is  the  officious  care 
Mr.  Lee  has  taken  to  write  incessantly  to  Congress, 
that  all  that  the  house  of  Hortalez  had  sent,  whether 
of  merchandise  or  munitions  of  war,  were  a  present 
from  France  to  America,  that  he  had  been  told  so  by 
Mr.  Hortalez  himself. 

Nothing  was  easier  than  for  the  politic  Mr.  Lee  to 
envenom  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Deane  by  giving  it  more 
the  effect  of  secret  menaces  tending  to  favor  certain 
demands  for  money,  of  which  he  afterwards  received 
a  share  of  the  profits;  all  of  which  explains  very  clearly 
the  astonishing  silence  that  Congress  has  kept  upon 
more  than  ten  of  my  letters  which  were  full  of  detail. 
This  silence  is  what  has  determined  me  to  send  an 
honest  and  discreet  man  who  can  penetrate  the 
foundation  of  this  intrigue. 

To-day  Mr.  Deane,  loaded  with  grief,  finds  himself 
suddenly  and  harshly  recalled.  He  is  ordered  to  go 
to  give  an  account  of  his  conduct  and  to  justify  him 
self  from  many  faults  which  they  do  not  designate. 

He  had  resolved  in  his  resentment  not  to  go  until 
Congress  had  sent  him  the  charges,  not  wishing,  as 
he  said,  to  go  to  deliver  himself  into  the  hands  of  his 
personal  enemies,  without  carrying  with  him  justifi 
cations  which  would  confound  them,  but  I  induced 
him  to  change  his  determination. 


The  Trying  Recall  127 

After  explaining  his  conviction  that  Arthur  Lee 
was  a  "lance  with  two  heads,"  and,  through  his 
brother  William,  was  playing  into  the  hands  of  the 
English,  Beaumarchais  assured  Deane  that  his 
vindication  was  assured. 

Your  justification  [he  said]  is  in  my  portfolio. 
Lee  accuses  you  of  having  on  your  authority  sent  offi 
cers  to  America,  and  I  have  in  my  hands  a  letter  in 
cypher  for  the  politic  Lee,  who  presses  me  warmly  to 
send  engineers  and  officers  to  the  aid  of  America,  and 
that  letter  was  written  before  your  arrival  in  France. 
Mr.  Lee  pretends  to  have  received  from  me  the 
assurance  that  all  my  consignments  were  presents 
from  France,  and  that  all  the  rest  is  a  romance  of  your 
cupidity ;  but  in  the  same  portfolio  I  have  the  bargain 
in  cypher  between  Lee  and  myself,  which  proves  that 
correspondences  were  established  by  this  very  Lee, 
on  the  basis  of  an  active  and  recipient  trade,  and  not 
otherwise. 

Then  you  did  not  imagine  on  your  own  motion  that 
America  had  need  of  officers.  Upon  your  arrival  in 
France,  by  following  errors  begun  by  Lee,  you  cannot 
be  guilty  in  the  eyes  of  Congress  for  having  regarded 
as  an  honorable  commerce  what  was  established 
under  that  form. 

Beaumarchais  says  that  he  persuaded  Deane  to 
brave  the  storm,  confident  that  his  honest  and 
patriotic  character  would  be  established  and  his 
enemies  be  put  to  shame. 

This  friendly  and  ardent  Frenchman  also  wrote 


128  Silas  Deane 

to  Congress  a  letter  which  is  dated  March  23, 
1778,  and  after  explaining  the  origin  of  his  work 
for  the  United  States,  he  says  that  he  wrote  Lee 
in  London  of  his  project  of  forming  a  fictitious 
business  house  called  Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co. 
to  send  military  supplies,  and  Lee  made  no  reply 
to  his  letter,  and  just  then  Deane  appeared  on  the 
scene. 

From  the  moment  of  his  arrival  [writes  Beau- 
marchais]  I  corresponded  with  no  one  else,  and  it  is 
in  consequence  of  our  mutual  efforts,  his  powers  which 
he  communicated  to  me,  the  details  with  which  he 
furnished  me,  and  the  specific  demands  he  made  for 
supplies  and  munitions  of  war,  besides  his  repeated 
promises  that  you  would  meet  our  shipments  with 
promrpt  returns,  that  I  prevailed  upon  my  friends  to 
entrust  me  with  sufficient  funds.  He  alone  has  over 
come  difficulties  on  every  hand;  and  without  the  re 
liance  that  we  have  placed  on  his  promises,  I  should 
never,  very  likely,  have  succeeded  in  realizing  this 
enterprise,  which  before  his  arrival  was  a  doubtful  and 
undeveloped  plan. 

Although  the  returns  pledged  by  him  have  not 
arrived  within  the  time  fixed,  we  have  not  indulged  in 
reproaches,  observing  that  he  was  even  more  dis 
tressed  than  we  ourselves.  I  venture  to  assure  you, 
Gentlemen,  that  had  he  not  continually  endeavored 
to  maintain  our  confidence  during  this  delay,  I  should 
perhaps  have  had  the  pain  of  being  compelled  to 
abandon  a  venture,  that  offered  only  risk,  with  scarcely 
a  hope  of  profit. 


The  Trying  Recall  129 

I  have  never  treated  with  any  other  person  in 
France,  and  as  tK«  other  Commissioners  have  ever 
been  lacking  in  common  civility  to  me,  I  testify  that  if 
my  zeal,  my  advances  of  money,  and  my  shipments  of 
supplies  and  merchandise  have  been  acceptable  to  the 
august  Congress,  their  gratitude  is  due  to  the  inde 
fatigable  exertions  of  Mr.  Deane  through  their  com 
mercial  affairs. 

A  letter  was  also  sent  to  Deane  from  Count  de 
Vergennes  dated  March  26,  1778,  praying  that  he 
might  find  in  his  own  country  the  same  sentiments 
of  regard  he  had  inspired  in  France. 

You  need  not  ask  [he  wrote]  for  more  than  those 
I  entertain  for  you,  and  shall  preserve  for  you  as  long 
as  I  shall  live. 

The  king,  desirous  of  giving  you  a  personal  testi 
mony  of  his  satisfaction  with  your  conduct,  has 
charged  me  to  inform  M.  the  president  of  Congress 
of  it;  this  is  the  object  of  the  letters  which  M.  Gerard 
will  deliver  you  for  Mr.  Hancock.  He  will  also  de 
liver  you  a  box  with  the  portrait  of  the  king. 

The  box  was  of  gold,  and  was  set  with  diamonds. 

With  these  testimonials,  and  the  assurance  of  his 
own  conscience  that  he  deserved  well  of  the  Re 
public,  with  much  solicitude,  yet  with  strong 
hopes  that  all  would  be  well,  Deane  reached  the 
United  States. 

The  work  of  Deane  in  Europe,  which  he  had 
wrought  so  zealously,  and  with  such  success  for 


130  Silas  Deane 

nearly  two  years,  was  over.  By  reason  of  circum 
stances  he  could  not  control  he  was  compelled  to 
work  in  intimate  alliance  with  a  man  with  whom 
he  had  little  in  common,  and  the  result  was  what 
we  might  naturally  expect. 

In  the  words  of  James  Lovell  in  a  letter  to 
Franklin  a  year  later :  "In  my  opinion,  the  improper 
triplicate  appointment  for  the  Court  of  France 
produced,  in  very  natural  consequence ,  suspicion 
and  animosity." 

Thus  returned  to  his  native  country  the  man 
who  was  appointed  two  years  before,  by  an  able 
committee  of  Congress  consisting  of  Franklin, 
Morris,  Jay,  Harrison,  and  Dickinson,  to  secure 
supplies  for  America  in  her  hour  of  need.  He  had 
performed  well  his  task;  despite  his  mistakes,  he 
fulfilled  the  task  which  was  set  for  him  to  do ;  the 
supplies  reached  Portsmouth  in  time  for  the  cam 
paign  of  1777,  which  came  to  its  culmination  in 
the  surrender  of  Burgoyne.  The  question,  whether 
the  history  of  the  glorious  year  of  1777  would 
have  been  what  it  was,  had  the  rancorous  Arthur 
Lee  been  in  the  office  Deane  so  ably  filled,  we 
need  not  stay  to  discuss.  Deane  did  the  work  he 
was  bidden  perform,  and  the  victory  at  Saratoga 
was  followed  by  the  treaties  with  France  of  Feb. 
6,  1778,  and  when  Deane  landed  in  America  it  was 


The  Trying  Recall  131 

on  the  shore  of  a  Republic,  taking  its  place  among 
the  nations  of  the  world.  He  must  have  thrilled 
with  gratitude  for  the  part  it  had  been  his  fortune 
to  take  in  the  events  of  those  critical  years,  but 
there  must  also  have  been  a  deep  solicitude  in  his 
mind,  as  he  thought  of  Arthur  Lee  and  his  subtle 
and  deadly  intrigue. 

The  plan  in  Lee's  mind,  which  lay  behind  the 
conspiracy,  which  issued  in  the  recall,  was  clearly 
set  forth  in  a  letter  he  wrote  Samuel  Adams, ..Oct. 
4,  1777,  in  which  he  said: 

I  have  within  this  year  been  at  several  Courts — of 
Spain,  Vienna,  and  Berlin,  and  I  find  that  this  of 
France  is  the  great  wheel  that  moves  them  all.  Here 
therefore  the  most  activity  is  required,  and  if  it  should 
ever  be  a  question  in  Congress  about  my  destination, 
I  should  be  much  obliged  to  you  for  remembering 
that  I  should  prefer  being  at  the  Court  of  France. 

On  the  same  day,  he  wrote  to  his  brother 
Richard,  another  leader  in  Congress : 

My  idea  of  adapting  characters  and  places  is  this: 
Dr.  Franklin  to  Vienna,  as  the  first,  most  respectable 
and  quiet;  Mr.  Deane  to  Holland;  and  the  Alderman 
(William  Lee)  to  Berlin;  Mr.  Izard  where  he  is;  Mr. 
Jennings  to  Madrid.  France  remains  the  center  of 
political  activity,  and  here  therefore  I  choose  to  be 
employed. 

Again  to  R.  H.  Lee: 


132  Silas  Deane 

Things  go  on  worse  and  worse  every  day  among 
ourselves,  and  my  situation  is  more  painful.  I  see 
in  every  department  neglect,  dissipation,  and  private 
schemes.  Being  in  trust  here,  I  am  responsible  for 
what  I  cannot  prevent,  and  these  very  men  will  pro 
bably  be  the  instruments  of  having  me  called  to  an 
account  for  their  misdeeds.  There  is  but  one  way  of 
redressing  this,  and  remedying  the  public  evil,  and 
that  is  the  plan  I  sent  you  before,  of  appointing  the 
Doctor  to  Vienna;  Deane  to  Holland;  Jennings  to 
Madrid,  and  leaving  me  here. 

Lee's  letters  abound  in  vague  charges,  meager 
hints  at  the  facts,  frequent  references  to  plunder 
and  waste.  One  thing  the  scheming  author 
was  clear  about — France  was  the  only  place  for 
the  play  of  his  genius,  he  was  the  one  man  capable 
of  turning  the  "great  wheel,"  whose  skillful  revo 
lutions  would  transform  chaos  to  order,  and 
usher  in  a  new  era  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy; 
and  the  recall  of  Silas  Deane  was  a  cog  in  the 
political  machinery  of  Arthur  Lee. 


CHAPTER IX 

THE  HOSTILITY  OF  CONGRESS 

CROSSING  the  Atlantic  in  Comte  d'Estaing's 
^  flagship,  in  company  with  Gerard  de  Rayne- 
val,  the  first  French  Minister  to  America,  Deane 
reached  Philadelphia  July  10,  1778,  after  a  voyage 
of  ninety-one  days,  and  reported  to  Congress  two 
days  later. 

A  cordial  greeting — a  delegation  from  Congress, 
salutes,  soldiers  drawn  up  in  the  streets — met  the 
Admiral  and  the  Minister  of  our  powerful  ally.  "  I 
had  the  honor  of  being  present  the  last  Sabbath," 
wrote  Henry  Marchant,  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Rhode  Island,  "at  the  most  interesting  inter 
view  that  ever  took  place  in  America,  or  perhaps 
in  the  world,  between  Monsieur  Gerard,  the 
plenipotentiary  of  France,  and  the  president  of 
Congress ....  This  interview  was  most  cordial, 
generous,  and  noble. " 

One  would  suppose  that  Silas  Deane  might 
naturally  expect  an  ovation  equally  cordial  with 
that  of  the  Frenchmen,  for  through  his  energy, 

133 


134  Silas  Deane 

address,  and  watchfulness,  combined  with  the 
friendliness  of  Vergennes  and  the  French  Court, 
and  the  activity  of  Beaumarchais,  eight  shiploads 
of  military  supplies  had  been  forwarded  to  the 
American  army  for  its  campaign  of  1777-8.  He 
had  commissioned  Pulaski,  De  Kalb,  Lafayette, 
and  Steuben  as  major-generals;  he  had  signed  the 
treaties  of  amity  and  commerce  with  Franklin 
and  Lee;  last  of  all  he  had  persuaded  Vergennes 
to  send  D'Estaing  with  a  fleet  of  fourteen  ships  of 
the  line  and  several  frigates,  a  force  sufficient  to 
announce  to  the  world  that  France  was  willing  to 
do  her  utmost  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the 
treaty. 

Of  this  last  achievement  Deane  wrote : 

It  was  in  my  view  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  utmost  of 
my  ambition  or  wishes.  To  this  I  applied  myself  and 
was  fortunately  successful.  It  is  no  vanity  or  pre 
sumption  to  say  that  it  was,  next  to  concluding  the 
treaties,  the  greatest  and  most  important  service  that 
could  in  any  circumstances  be  rendered  to  this  country, 
and  the  application  was  made  and  the  design  effected 
by  myself  solely.  These  are  facts,  well  known  and 
acknowledged  even  by  my  enemies. 

Reaching  Delaware  Bay,  July  10,  he  sent  a 
message  to  the  president  of  Congress,  announcing 
his  arrival,  and  that  he  should  leave  the  ship  in 
the  afternoon  and  go  to  Philadelphia;  and  as  soon 


Congress  Hostile  135 

as  he  had  recovered  from  an  intermittent  fever  he 
would  pay  his  respects  to  Congress,  and  offer  his 
congratulations  over  the  glorious  events  which  had 
recently  occurred. 

Henry  Laurens,  president  of  Congress,  welcomed 
Deane  with  all  the  cordiality  and  warmth  of  which 
his  solemn  nature  was  capable;  there  were  many 
others,  true  friends,  who  congratulated  Deane  on 
his  success ;  but  the  days  went  by,  and  there  was  no 
invitation  from  Congress  to  make  a  report.  Deane 
sent  word  that  he  had  recovered,  and  was  ready 
to  tell  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe  for  which  he 
had  been  recalled.  A  month  passed  before  any 
notice  was  taken  of  him,  and  on  Aug.  15,  it  was 
ordered  that  he  be  introduced  to  Congress. 

The  letters  from  Franklin  and  Beaumarchais 
were  read,  expressing  their  confidence  in  Deane, 
and  their  high  appreciation  of  his  work. 

He  gave  some  information  concerning  European 
politics,  and  was  ordered  to  attend  on  Monday, 
Aug.  17,  and  again  on  Friday,  Aug.  21. 

On  Sept.  8,  he  wrote  to  ask  if  further  attend 
ance  was  required,  but  he  received  no  reply. 

On  Sept.  8,  he  wrote  John  Hancock,  declaring 
that  his  patience  was  worn  out,  that  he  could  not 
and  would  not  longer  endure  a  treatment  which 
carried  with  it  marks  of  the  deepest  ingratitude, 


136  Silas  Deane 

that  if  Congress  had  not  time  to  hear  a  man  who 
came  four  thousand  miles  under  the  pretense  of 
receiving  intelligence  from  him,  it  was  time  that 
the  good  people  of  the  Continent  should  know  the 
manner  in  which  their  representatives  conduct 
public  business,  and  how  they  treat  their  fellow- 
citizens  who  have  rendered  the  country  most  im 
portant  services.  He  said  he  knew  that  the 
majority  were  disposed  to  do  him  justice,  and  they 
complained  of  the  delay,  but  a  few  men  could  put 
off  the  decision  of  any  question,  by  one  means  or 
another,  as  long  as  they  pleased. 

On  Sept.  1 8,  the  committee,  to  which  had  been 
referred  letters  from  Arthur  Lee,  reported.  On 
the  same  day  a  member  in  his  place  informed  the 
House  that  he  had  information  that  Carmichael 
had  charged  Deane  with  misappropriation  of 
public  money.  He  was  ordered  to  reduce  the 
charge  to  writing. 

On  Sept.  19,  hostile  letters  from  Izard  were 
introduced. 

On  Sept.  23,  William  Carmichael  was  sum 
moned  to  the  bar  and  examined  upon 
oath. 

On  Sept.  24,  Deane  asked  for  copies  of  Izard's 
letters. 

On  Sept.  28,  Carmichael  was  questioned;   no 


Congress  Hostile  137 

opportunity  was  given  Deane  to  explain,  and  no 
direct  charges  or  complaints  were  made. 

It  was  perhaps  about  this  time  that  Hosmer, 
a  member  of  Congress,  whose  failing  health  com 
pelled  his  resignation,  told  Deane  of  the  con 
spiracy  against  him,  of  the  poisoning  of  the  minds 
of  many  members  by  Arthur  Lee,  and  of  their  pur 
pose  to  wear  him  out  by  repeated  delays.  He 
said  he  had  overheard  some  of  Deane's  enemies 
talking  the  matter  over,  and  their  plan  was,  not  to 
bring  specific  charges,  but  to  destroy  him  by  delay. 

On  Oct.  12,  1778,  Deane  sent  to  the  president 
of  Congress  answers  to  the  letters  of  Arthur  Lee 
and  Ralph  Izard,  and  wrote  that  he  had  been  three 
months  in  attendance,  that  his  health,  interests,  and 
honor  would  not  permit  him  to  stay  much  longer 
in  America,  that  he  wished  to  go  into  the  country 
the  next  day,  and  to  engage  passage  for  France  for 
the  next  month.  We  are  not  to  think  of  Deane  as 
imagining  for  a  moment  that  he  was  to  serve  again 
as  Commissioner ;  John  Adams  had  been  chosen  to 
his  place;  but  he  had  business  in  France  which 
demanded  his  attention. 

But  Congress  took  no  definite  action  on  his  case, 
though  reminded  repeatedly  of  Deane's  anxiety  for 
the  closing  of  the  case. 

Deane  said  that  in  the  letters  of  Izard  there  were 


138  Silas  Deane 

charges  against  all  the  Commissioners,  but  that 
Lee  had  been  left  out  wholly,  and  the  blame  had 
been  laid  solely  on  Franklin  and  himself;  and  then 
he  proceeds  to  represent  the  Doctor  as  entirely 
under  Deane's  influence. 

"My  situation,"  he  wrote,  "is  peculiarly  un 
fortunate;  Izard's  letters  were  written  with  as 
much  design  of  impeaching  Franklin's  conduct, 
yet  it  operates  solely  against  me." 

Here  is  a  sample  of  the  contents  of   Izard's 

]  letters:  "If  the  whole  world  had  been  searched  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  find  a  person  more 
unfit  than  Deane  for  the  trust  with  which  Congress 
favored  him."  Such  a  statement  was  an  insult  to 
the  Committee,  of  which  men  of  the  judgment  of 
Morris  and  Dickinson  were  members;  a  man  who 
could  write  such  a  statement  would  have  no  in 
fluence  on  fair-minded  men. 

One  of  the  charges  made  by  the  gang  of  con 
spirators  against  Deane  was  that  he  had  such 

'  hauteur  and   presumption  as  to  give  offense  to 
every  gentleman  with  whom  he  had  any  business. 
To  this  Deane  replied : 

I  appeal  to  the  business  I  transacted.  I  arrived  in 
Paris  in  July  without  funds,  uncertain  of  remittances, 
without  credit,  ignorant  of  the  language  and  manners 
of  France,  an  utter  stranger  to  the  persons  in  power 


Congress  Hostile  139 

and  influence  in  the  Court;  the  news  of  our  mis 
fortunes  in  Canada  arrived  in  France  before  me,  and 
of  subsequent  misfortunes  immediately  after. 

The  artifices  and  opposition  of  the  British  had  to 
be  overcome,  yet  before  Dec.  I ,  he  had  forwarded 
thirty  thousand  stands  of  arms,  an  equal  number 
of  suits  of  clothes,  over  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pieces  of  brass  artillery;  tents  and  other  stores  to  a 
large  amount  had  been  shipped  from  the  different 
ports.  Many  of  these  supplies  were  in  use  against 
Burgoyne;  he  had  established  a  correspondence 
with  Holland,  Russia,  and  other  nations,  and  laid 
the  foundation  for  a  grant  of  money  from  Versailles. 

The  second  charge  was,  that  Arthur  Lee  said 
that  his  despatches  to  Congress  had  been  opened 
by  Deane.  Of  this  Deane  said  that  Lee  never  in 
timated  it  to  him,  and  it  was  a  groundless  calumny. 

On  Oct.  12,  Deane  sent  Congress  a  letter,  in 
which  he  took  up  Lee's  charge,  "that  millions  had 
been  spent,  and  almost  everything  remains  to  be 
paid  for."  In  reply  to  this  Deane  insists: 

Mr.  Lee  has  in  his  hands  the  accounts  of  all  the 
monies  received  and  paid  out  on  the  public  account. 
He  knows  that  the  total  amount  received  by  the 
Commissioners,  to  the  time  of  my  leaving  Paris,  was 
3 >753»  25°  Hvres,  and  the  whole  expense  to  that  day 
was  4,046,293  Hvres;  the  greater  part  of  this  was  ex- 


140  Silas  Deane 

pended  by  and  with  Mr.  Lee's  orders.  The  whole  is 
well  known  to  him,  and  I  sent  him  in  writing  an 
explanation  of  every  payment  made  in  his  absence. 

What  I  have  observed  in  Mr.  Lee's  letter  confirms 
me  in  the  opinion,  which  Dr.  Franklin  and  some  others 
have  for  some  time  had  of  him,  that  from  a  long  in 
dulgence  of  his  jealous  and  suspicious  disposition  and 
habits  of  mind,  he  at  last  arrived  on  the  very  borders 
of  insanity,  and  at  times  he  even  passes  that  line; 
and  it  gives  me  pleasure,  though  a  melancholy  one, 
that  I  can  attribute  to  the  misfortune  of  his  head  what 
otherwise  I  must  place  to  a  depravity  of  the  heart. 

Deane  refutes  the  assertion  of  Lee  that  con 
tracts  were  concealed  from  him  with  the  greatest 
care,  and  adds:  "I  never  knew  Mr.  Lee  satisfied 
with  any  person  he  did  business  with,  whether  of 
public  or  private  nature,  and  his  dealings,  whether 
for  trifles  or  things  of  importance,  almost  con 
stantly  ended  in  dispute  and  sometimes  in  litigious 
quarrels." 

Through  tiresome  months  of  the  autumn  and 
winter  of  1778,  and  on  until  more  than  a  year  had 
gone  by,  Deane  waited  on  Congress,  compelled  at 
heavy  expense  to  stay  in  Philadelphia,  not  knowing 
on  which  day  he  might  be  summoned :  his  business 
suffering,  all  family  claims  put  in  the  background, 
appealing  repeatedly  for  definite  charges  and  for 
the  privilege  of  rendering  his  accounts. 


Congress  Hostile  141 

Years  later  he  wrote  from  London  that  he  had 
duplicates  of  forty-two  such  urgent  appeals  he 
made  without  avail.  He  was  of  course  unable  to 
give  all  the  details  of  his  business  transactions 
with  all  the  vouchers.  He  had  not  been  asked  to 
do  so  in  the  letter  recalling  him.  There  was  no 
time  to  send  to  Strassburg,  Marseilles,  Nantes,  for 
the  accounts  of  transactions,  many  of  which  he 
carried  through  covertly  to  elude  the  English. 
Vergennes  insisted  that  he  should  go  to  America 
secretly,  and  to  call  in  the  accounts  would  have 
consumed  many  weeks.  He  said  he  could  account 
for  every  farthing  expended. 

That  Deane  was  not  constantly  brooding  over 
his  trials  appears  from  a  letter  to  the  president 
of  Congress  dated  November,  1778,  in  which  he 
makes  suggestions  on  two  important  subjects :  the 
redemption  of  money — the  paper  issue  of  forty 
millions;  and  also  upon  the  establishment  of  a 
marine.  He  urged  that  a  fleet  of  forty  sails  be  got 
to  sea  the  following  year,  and  that  a  bank  be 
established  in  Europe  by  securing  a  loan  of  twenty- 
five  million  dollars,  and  establishing  a  sinking 
fund  to  pay  off  principal  and  interest  in  sixteen 
years.  He  argues  against  the  plan  of  Congress  to 
repudiate  the  first  issue  and  put  out  another,  and 
says,  "I  fear  the  result  of  a  total  bankruptcy, 


Silas  Deane 


which  to  me  appears  more  than  probable  in  the 
present  plan." 

On  Nov.  30,  he  writes  his  brother  Barnabas  of 
his  fears  of  a  general  bankruptcy,  as  the  majority 
of  the  members  of  Congress  oppose  the  attempt 
to  make  a  foreign  loan.  He  says  he  has  made  up 
his  mind  to  publish  an  account  of  his  case  ;  he  had 
struggled  long  against  it,  but  he  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  his  duty,  perhaps  one  of  the 
last  duties  he  could  render  his  country,  as  it  seemed 
best  to  him  to  escape  from  the  ingratitude  from 
which  he  was  so  keenly  suffering:  his  wife  had 
died;  his  son  was  in  France;  the  air  was  full  of 
rumors  which  Lee,  Izard,  and  the  rest  of  the  con 
spirators  were  industriously  spreading,  that  Deane 
had  become  enormously  rich,  and  that  his  demand 
for  the  settlement  of  the  accounts  and  the  pay 
ment  of  a  large  balance  was  pure  bluff.  Congress 
was  at  its  wit's  end  to  get  money  for  the  army. 
Paper  money  was  worth  about  ten  cents  on  a 
dollar,  and  before  Deane  returned  to  France  it 
shrank  to  five. 

It  was  a  dismal  time  for  America.  There  were 
two  parties  in  Congress,  the  National  and  the 
States  Rights:  prominent  in  the  former  were 
Washington,  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Hancock,  Morris, 
Madison,  Livingston,  and  the  Virginia  statesmen 


Congress  Hostile  143 

generally;  leaders  of  the  latter  party  were  the  Lees, 
John  Adams,  and  Samuel  Adams.  The  last 
named  was  friendly  to  the  Lees  from  the  first.  It 
was  through  his  influence  that  Arthur  Lee  was 
appointed  to  represent  Massachusetts  in  London. 
He  was  devoted  to  the  project  of  exciting  alarm 
against  Washington ;  he  voted  against  every  mea 
sure  to  increase  Washington's  influence.  There 
were  days  when  no  more  than  fifteen  members 
attended.  There  was  a  powerful  faction  which 
aimed  at  the  recall  of  Franklin  and  the  election  of 
Arthur  Lee  in  his  place,  and  Lee  was  striking  at 
Franklin  behind  his  back  as  hard  as  he  dared. 

Determined  if  possible  to  become  the  central 
figure  in  Paris,  which  was  the  heart  of  political  in 
fluence  in  Europe,  Lee  bent  every  nerve  to  unseat 
the  older  and  more  eminent  Commissioner;  he 
probably  would  have  succeeded  had  it  not  been  for 
the  direct  and  energetic  influence  of  the  French 
Ambassador,  M.  Gerard.  It  is  said  that  at  one 
time  the  majority  to  sustain  Franklin  was  only  one. 
Gerard  claims  the  honor  of  having  defeated  the 
Lees.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Vergennes  he  says: 
"The  stories  of  Arthur  Lee  are  but  an  absurd 
tissue  of  falsehoods  and  sarcasm,  which  can  only 
compromise  those  who  have  the  misfortune  of 
being  obliged  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him." 


144  Silas  Deane 

In  another  letter  Gerard  wrote : 

I  explained  myself  gradually,  and  not  until  the  very 
instant  when  it  was  indispensable  to  prevent  this 
dangerous  and  bad  man  (Arthur  Lee)  from  displacing 
Franklin,  and  being  at  the  same  time  charged  with 
negotiations  with  Spain.  I  cannot  conceal  from  you 
that  I  rejoice  every  day  more  and  more  in  having 
been  able  to  assist  in  preventing  this  misfortune. 

The  struggle  was  long,  lasting  through  the 
spring  and  a  part  of  the  summer  of  1779,  until  the 
country  clamored  for  an  end  of  strife.  At  length 
Franklin  was  confirmed,  and  Arthur  Lee,  William 
Lee,  and  Ralph  Izard  were  recalled. 

The  fate  of  Deane  was  unlike  that  of  Franklin ; 
the  conspiracy  was  too  powerful,  too  subtle  for 
the  former :  whichever  way  the  doomed  man  turned 
he  met  hostility  open  or  disguised.  Congress  was 
\  crystallizing  into  two  camps — those  for  Deane,  and 
those  against  him.  This  process  was  hastened  by 
an  address  by  Deane  Dec.  5,  1778,  in  the  Phila 
delphia  Packet,  which  we  may  label  "War  to  the 
Knife. "  In  it  he  said  that  he  had  been  compelled 
to  take  that  course  by  the  refusal  of  Congress  to 
consider  his  cause. 

He  said  that  he  had  been  honored  with  one 
colleague,  and  saddled  with  another;  that  the 
Commissioners,  believing  that  Lee  could  nowhere 


Congress  Hostile  145 

be  of  less  service  than  at  Paris,  had  sent  him  to 
Spain  in  February,  where  his  wanton  display  of  his 
errand  had  given  just  offense.  In  May  he  had 
gone  to  Germany,  where  he  did  nothing  but  lose 
his  papers. 

In  February,  1777,  William  Lee,  an  alderman  of 
London,  and  brother  of  Arthur,  was  appointed 
commercial  agent  in  France,  and  he  was  urged  to 
come  at  once  to  attend  to  matters  of  great  moment. 
He  waited  four  months,  and  then  went  to  Nantes, 
where  he  declined  to  remedy  certain  affairs, 
lest,  as  he  admitted,  his  property  in  Eng 
land  might  be  affected.  Afterward,  when  he 
was  appointed  Commissioner  to  the  Courts  of 
Vienna  and  Berlin,  he  manifested  his  customary 
appetite  for  graft. 

These  brothers,  Arthur  and  William,  he  would 
treat  with  tenderness  as  they  had  two  brothers  in 
Congress,  but  candor  compelled  him  to  say  that 
they  gave  universal  disgust  to  the  nation  whose 
aid  we  solicited,  through  an  undisguised  hatred 
and  contempt  for  the  French  nation,  which  greatly 
embarrassed  the  other  Commissioners  and  preju 
diced  their  affairs. 

He  spoke  of  the  opinion  which  many  had  of 
Lee,  that  he  was  in  league  with  the  British  Min 
istry  through  Lord  Shelburne,  his  English  patron. 


i46  Silas  Deane 

Lee  was  dragged  into  signing  the  treaties  with 
France  with  the  greatest  reluctance,  and  the 
moment  they  were  signed,  though  they  were  to  be 
kept  a  secret  for  a  time,  Lee's  private  secretary 
hastened  to  England,  and  soon  afterward  Charles 
James  Fox,  a  friend  of  Lord  Shelburne,  publicly 
declared  their  leading  provisions  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

He  complains  that  while  Congress  had  voted  on 
Dec.  8,  1777,  to  recall  him,  and  he  was  ready  early 
in  July  with  his  report,  Congress  waited  five  weeks, 
then  gave  him  two  hearings,  on  Aug.  19  and 
2 1 ,  and  he  had  been  unable  to  gain  a  third. 

We  can  imagine  the  excitement  this  drastic 
paper  excited:  John  Adams  piously  desired  that  its 
author  be  given  over  to  Satan  to  buffet.  It  would 
have  seemed  rather  natural  to  Deane  to  have  that 
prayer  answered,  after  his  long  experience  with 
Lee! 

,  Gerard's  comment  is  significant  here  in  view  of 
the  friendliness  between  the  Lees  and  the  austere 
Adams  statesmen.  Gerard  says  that  Deane  pub 
lished  a  pamphlet  which  was  not  distasteful  to 
the  plurality  of  Congress,  wearied  and  ashamed  of 
the  ascendancy  of  R.  H.  Lee  and  Samuel  Adams. 

We  also  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  Lee  secured 
his  appointment  to  London  through  Samuel  Adams. 


Congress  Hostile  147 

It  may  not  be  in  good  taste  for  us  in  this  milder 
age  to  criticize  Deane  for  publishing  such  a  letter; 
it  was  a  time  in  which  men  used  strong  language 
and  called  things  and  people  by  their  correct 
names,  if  they  could  think  of  words  severe  enough. 
Deane  had  been  stung  and  goaded  beyond  en-  i 
durance  by  the  Lee  party  (I  was  tempted  to  say 
"gang") ;  the  pent-up  anger  of  years  at  last  burst 
forth.  Deane  knew  he  could  not  make  things 
worse;  he  thought  that  the  doings  of  Congress, 
sitting  behind  closed  doors,  its  treatment  of  a  man 
who  had  conducted  its  business  successfully  in 
Europe  ought  to  be  known  by  the  public  at  large ; 
he  intended  to  publish  further  chapters,  but  did 
not,  for  on  Monday,  Dec.  7,  two  days  after  the 
letter  was  issued,  Congress  voted  to  call  in  Deane 
and  hear  his  story.  But  nothing  came  of  it.  Deane 
was  permitted  to  give  driblets  of  information,  but 
no  attempt  was  made  to  examine  his  case  fairly. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate,  but  it 
did  not  give  him  a  hearing,  or  ask  him  a  question. 
Later  in  December,  Deane  was  notified  to  attend 
immediately;  he  did  so,  gave  some  information, 
and  was  ordered  to  withdraw;  it  was  voted  that 
he  await  further  orders. 

Our   chief   source   of   information   upon    that 
stormy  period  is  the  newspapers,  and  the  man  who 


148  Silas  Deane 

heartily  enjoyed  the  tempest  was  Thomas  Paine, 
who  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  Committee  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  of  which  R.  H.  Lee  was  chairman. 
He  received  a  large  bonus,  so  the  report  goes,  and 
proceeded  to  dip  his  pen  in  gall  and  falsehood  after 
the  genuine  Arthur  Lee  style.  Innuendo  and  sar 
casm,  with  a  dash  of  bold  lying,  made  him  a  vig- 
,  orous  defender  of  the  Lees,  and  a  bitter  enemy  of 
Deane,  until  even  his  employers  could  not  endure 
him  and  he  was  discharged. 

Here  are  samples  of  his  brilliant  genius:  " There 
is  something  in  the  concealment  of  the  papers  that 
i  looks  like  embezzlement."  "From  the  pathetic 
manner  in  which  Deane  speaks  of  his  sufferings  it 
appears  that  there  is  in  this  city  a  Book  of  Suffer 
ings  in  which  he  is  registered." 

Robert  Morris  took  up  the  defense  of  Deane: 
said  he  was  a  man  of  honor  and  integrity.  Then 
i  Paine  replied  in  the  Philadelphia  Packet,  Jan.  12, 
•  1779,  saying:  "The  interest  of  Deane  sat  there  in 
the  person  of  his  partner,  Robert  Morris,  who,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  represented  the  state,  rep 
resented  likewise  the  partnership  in  trade." 

On  Jan.  14,  1779,  there  appeared  in  the  Packet 
a  card  by  Deane  declaring  that  Paine' s  contention 
was  false  in  every  part.  Paine  had  said  that  only 
one  ship  in  three  arrived  with  military  supplies, 


Congress  Hostile  149 

and  that  the  Mercury  and  Seine  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  whereas  eight  ships  sailed  from 
France  with  four  million  livres'  worth  of  munitions 
of  war,  and  only  one  was  seized  by  the  English,  the 
Seine,  after  delivering  a  capital  part  of  her  cargo 
at  Martinico. 

The  profitless  discussion  went  on  for  weeks ;  back 
and  forth  the  hot  words  passed;  about  the  only 
good  Deane  received  was  an  experience,  which 
taught  him  never  to  repeat  the  experiment  of 
getting  justice  by  controversy  in  the  newspapers. 
Deane  has  been  sharply  criticized  for  his  exposure 
of  the  discord  and  strife  among  the  Commissioners, 
and  for  his  serious  charges  against  men  high  in 
office,  but  we  must  remember  that  it  was  the  crisis 
of  Deane's  life.  Called  suddenly  home  from  a  high 
office,  to  which  he  had  been  commissioned  by  five 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  country,  he  was  met  by 
delay  and  a  vague  atmosphere  of  suspicion.  After 
five  months  of  humiliating  and  expensive  waiting, 
Deane  was  convinced  that  Hosmer's  explanation 
was  correct,  and  that  his  enemies  were  seeking  to 
wear  him  out  by  delay. 

The  only  serious  charge  against  him  was  that 
he  had  used  his  agency  to  advance  his  private 
interests.  In  an  article  dated  March  26,  1779, 
Paine  said:  "It  is  a  general  belief  that  you  ne- 


150  Silas  Deane 

gotiated  a  proffered  present  amounting  to  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds  into  a  purchase,  and 
embezzled,  or  were  privy  to  embezzling,  the  public 
despatches  to  promote  the  imposition. " 

It  is  hard  to  see  how  wild  talk  like  this  could 
make  any  impression  on  considerate  men;  but  no 
doubt  even  they  would  say  that  where  there  was 
so  much  smoke  there  must  be  a  little  fire. 

There  is  an  enlightening  letter  from  James 
Lovell  to  Franklin,  dated  May  15,  1778,  in  which 
he  speaks  of  the  constraint  brought  to  bear  on 
Congress  to  take  the  position  it  did  toward  Deane : 

You  have  no  adequate  idea  [he  says]  of  the  bold 
claims  and  even  threats  which  were  made  against 
Congress,  inducing  the  necessity  of  disavowing  Mr. 
Deane's  agreements,  and  the  consequently  more  dis 
agreeable  necessity  of  recalling  him.  That  gentle 
man's  embarrassments  have  always  been  considered 
as  apologies  for  his  compliances,  and  you  may  rely 
upon  it  that  imagined  if  not  real  necessity  alone  has 
governed  the  decision  of  Congress  with  respect  to  him, 
and  that  he  will  find  congenial  regard  for  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  conducted  our  affairs  abroad. 

It  is  a  relief  to  read  this  considerate  statement  of 
a  man  so  intelligent  and  able  as  the  secretary  of 
Congress.  It  helps  explain  the  fact  that  men  like 
Samuel  Adams,  despite  Thomas  Paine's  bluster 


Congress  Hostile  151 

and  cry  of  fraud,  played  into  the  hands  of  the  Lees, 
Izards,  and  Carmichaels. 

Arthur  Lee,  lago-like,  had  done  his  work  only 
too  well.  His  brother  Richard  Henry  was  a  good 
second.  Gerard's  description  of  the  latter  is  vivid : 
"He  has  a  secret  ambition  and  dissimulation  equal 
to  that  of  the  people  of  the  East,  and  a  rigidity 
of  manners  and  the  gravity  that  is  natural  to 
Presbyterians.  He  is  laborious,  intelligent,  and 
supple." 

In  a  reply  to  this  able  chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Relations,  dated  Jan.  26,  1779, 
Deane  refers  to  words  in  Lee's  paper,  "libel, 
fabulous,  innuendo,  calumnies,"  and  says  they 
suggest  the  influence  of  Thomas  Paine,  who  has 
told  the  public  that  he  for  several  years  was  your 
intimate  acquaintance. 

You  say  [Deane  continues]:  "Had  I  winked  at  all 
information  of  public  abuse,  I  do  not  think  I  should 
have  incurred  Mr.  Deane's  censure,  but  whilst  I  am 
honored  with  public  trust  it  shall  be  my  constant 
endeavor  to  prevent  the  community  from  being  in 
jured,  and  certainly  to  insist  that  all  those  who  have 
fingered  large  sums  of  money  should  be  called  upon 
for  a  fair  and  honest  settlement. ' ' 

Have  I  been  charged  with  abuse  of  the  public  trust? 
Has  Congress  or  any  one  member  brought  forward 
any  such  charge? 


152  Silas  Deane 

You  say:  "Mr.  Deane  talks  much  about  his  great 
services  and  good  conduct,  how  happens  it  that  of 
the  four  Commissioners  besides  himself,  three  are  so 
clear  and  strong  in  reprobating  that  conduct?" 

Who  are  those  three?  Two  are  your  brothers,  and 
the  third  not  Dr.  Franklin.  Dr.  Franklin's  conduct 
is  as  surely  reprobated  as  mine. 

Then  he  quotes  Franklin,  who  said  he  had  been 
for  fifteen  months  in  the  same  house  with  Deane 
and  had  always  found  him  a  faithful,  active,  and 
able  minister.  Deane  tells  R.  H.  Lee  that  if 
he  told  the  whole  he  would  have  said:  "Of  four 
Commissioners  in  public  service,  three,  Mr.  Arthur 
Lee,  Mr.  Wm.  Lee,  and  Mr.  Izard,  reprobate,  the 
fourth  highly  approves." 

Franklin's  opinion  is  seen  in  a  letter  he  wrote 
about  this  time  to  Arthur  Lee.  There  is  less  evi 
dence  of  the  calmness  and  mildness  of  the  patient 
philosopher  in  it  than  in  some  of  his  other  writings, 
but  we  may  believe  that  he  had  not  lost  his  insight 
or  good  judgment  when  he  wrote  Lee : 

Your  angry  charge  of  "making  a  party  business  of 
it"  is  groundless.  You  magnify  your  zeal  to  have 
the  public  accounts  settled,  and  insinuate  that  Mr. 
Deane  and  I  prevented  it  by  taking  possession  of  all 
the  vouchers  and  by  taking  constantly  the  public 
papers  to  ourselves,  which  are  the  property  of  all  the 
Commissioners.  When  this  comes  to  be  read  in  the 


Congress  Hostile  153 

Committee,  for  which  it  seems  to  be  calculated  rather 
than  for  me,  who  know  the  circumstances,  what  can 
they  understand  by  it  but  that  you  are  the  only  care 
ful,  honest  man  of  the  three;  and  that  we  have  some 
knavish  reason  for  keeping  the  accounts  in  the  dark, 
and  you  from  seeing  the  vouchers? 

But  the  truth  is  the  papers  came  into  Mr.  Deane's 
hands  and  mine  first,  as  he  was  engaged  in  pur 
chasing  goods  for  Congress  before  either  you  or  I 
came  into  France;  next,  as  somebody  must  keep  the 
papers,  and  you  were  either  on  long  journeys  or  had  a 
commission  to  go  and  reside  in  Spain,  whereas  Mr. 
Deane  and  I  lived  almost  constantly  in  the  same  house 
in  Passy,  we  did  most  of  the  business.  Where  could 
the  papers  be  so  properly  placed  as  with  us  who  had 
daily  occasion  to  use  them? 

I  never  knew  you  desired  to  have  the  keeping  of 
them.  You  were  never  refused  a  paper.  You  ask 
why  I  act  so  inconsistently  with  my  duty  to  the  public. 
This  is  a  heavy  charge,  Sir,  which  I  have  not  deserved. 
To  the  public  I  am  accountable,  and  not  to  you.  I 
have  been  a  servant  to  many  publics  through  a  long 
life;  have  served  them  with  fidelity  and  honored  ap 
probation.  There  is  not  a  single  instance  of  my  ever 
being  accused  before  of  acting  contrary  to  their  inter 
ests  or  my  duty.  I  shall  account  to  Congress  when 
called  upon  for  this  my  terrible  offense  of  being  silent 
to  you. 

It  is  true  I  have  omitted  answering  some  of  your 
letters,  particularly  your  angry  ones  in  which  you, 
with  very  magisterial  airs,  schooled  me,  as  if  I  had 
been  one  of  your  domestics.  I  saw  your  jealous, 
suspicious,  malignant,  and  quarrelsome  temper,  which 
was  daily  manifesting  itself  against  Mr.  Deane,  and 


154  Silas  Deane 

almost  every  other  person  you  had  any  concern  with. 
I  therefore  passed  your  affronts  in  silence,  I  did  not 
answer,  but  burnt  your  angry  letters,  and  received 
you  with  the  same  civility  as  if  you  had ,  not  written 
them.  Perhaps  I  may  still  pursue  the  same  conduct. 

At  another  time  Franklin  wrote  Lee : 

I  do  not  know  that  either  Mr.  Deane  or  myself  ever 
showed  any  unwillingness  to  settle  the  public  accounts. 
You  could  at  any  time  have  obtained  the  accounts 
as  readily  as  either  of  us,  and  you  had  abundant  more 
leisure.  If  on  examining  them,  you  had  wanted  ex 
planations  on  any  article,  you  might  have  called  for 
it  and  had  it:  you  never  did  either.  As  soon  as  I 
obtained  the  account,  I  put  it  into  your  hands,  and 
desired  you  to  look  into  it,  and  I  have  heard  no  more 
of  it  till  now. 

The  bitterness  of  those  miserable  days,  and  the 
ease  with  which  the  mind  of  a  good  man  could  be 
poisoned,  is  seen  in  the  following  quotation  from 
the  immortal  diary  of  that  high-minded  John 
Adams,  who  was  a  better  man  than  any  one  else 
was  in  his  judgment  capable  of  being.  He  wrote 
in  his  diary  Feb.  8,  1779,  his  opinion  of  Deane 's 
1  address,  that  it  was 

the  most  wicked  and  abominable  production  that 
ever  sprang  from  a  human  heart.  He  appeared  to  me 
in  the  light  of  a  wild  boar,  that  ought  to  be  hunted 
down  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  I  have  given  him 
up  to  Satan  to  be  buffeted.  There  are  certain  in- 


Congress  Hostile  155 

fallible  proofs  of  vanity,  presumption,  ambition, 
avarice,  and  folly  in  Mr.  Deane  as  to  render  him  un 
worthy  of  confidence,  and  therefore  Dr.  Franklin  has 
been  deceived. 

The  only  comment  upon  this  childish  opinion  of 
Adams  is  to  put  by  the  side  of  it  his  opinion,  when 
he  took  the  office  left  vacant  by  Deane,  that  Deane 
had  fulfilled  his  mission  ably  and  well. 

On  April  17,  1779,  Deane  wrote  Congress  that 
his  family  had  suffered  much  by  his  absence,  he 
wished  to  leave  the  city  the  next  week. 

On  May  22,  he  wrote  the  president  of  Congress : 

Conversing  with  an  honored  friend,  I  asked  him  how 
it  was  possible  that  when  there  was  so  much  to  do  in 
France  I  had  been  ordered  home.  He  answered  that 
it  was  the  design  of  those  who  wished  to  sacrifice  me  to 
family  interests  to  wear  me  out  by  delays,  and,  without 
any  direct  charges,  to  ruin  me  in  the  opinion  of  my 
countrymen  by  insincere  hints  and  innuendoes.  I 
was  unable  then  to  think  my  friend's  suspicions 
correct,  yet  now  they  are  confirmed. 

On  June  10,  a  motion  was  made  that  Deane 
should  not  depart,  and  that  Arthur  Lee  be  recalled, 
but  it  did  not  pass. 

The  comment  of  Henry  Laurens,  President  of 
Congress,  is  significant:  "If  Deane  goes  in  de 
fiance  of  Congress,  it  will  be  a  confession." 

About  the  only  consolation  Deane  had  in  that 


156  Silas  Deane 

period  was  the  satisfaction  of  being  several  thou 
sand  miles  distant  from  Arthur  Lee,  whose 
presence  with  him  in  Paris  had  brought  on  a 
premature  Purgatory.  But  Lee's  spell  was  on 
Congress,  and  still  it  delayed  action. 

Vergennes  wrote  Oct.  29,  1778,  "I  fear  Mr.  Lee 
and  those  about  him.  ..."  and  this  consideration 
induced  the  Court  at  Versailles  to  keep  secret 
from  Arthur  Lee  the  intended  sailing  of  Count 
d'Estaing,  and  on  several  occasions  he  created 
the  highest  disgust  at  Versailles.  The  Court  of 
Madrid  had  the  same  opinion  of  him.  Mr.  S. 
Nicholson  wrote  William  Carmichael:  "I  have 
heard  Dr.  Franklin  say  he  thought  Arthur  Lee 
was  crazy,  and  I  am  sure  it  was  current  enough 
at  Nantes." 

There  must  have  been  method  in  a  madness 
which  could  so  thoroughly  undermine  the  reputa 
tion  of  such  a  man  as  Deane ;  but  Laurens,  president 
of  Congress,  though  apparently  an  effusive  friend, 
was  at  heart  a  deadly  enemy;  the  Lees,  Izard, 
Carmichael,  Col.  Duer,  Tom  Paine,  Samuel 
Adams,  and  some  others  worked  together,  and 
while,  as  Gerard  said,  the  majority  in  Con 
gress  was  in  favor  of  Deane,  his  enemies  were 
strong  and  skillful  enough  to  lay  every  motion 
which  looked  toward  action  on  the  table,  and  at 


Congress  Hostile  157 

the  same  time  hinder  every  effort  toward  definite 
charges. 

It  was  a  brilliant  example  of  malice  and  petti*- 
fog  triumphing  over  a  man  whom  circumstances 
had  put  into  the  power  of  a  combination  of  deter 
mined  men,  who,  with  greater  or  less  sincerity,  set 
aside  all  principles  of  justice,  all  rules  of  equity,  all 
motives  of  gratitude,  all  feelings  of  compassion, 
and  even  of  sympathy,  and  condemned  a  public 
officer,  uncharged  and  unheard,  for  crimes  ex 
ploited  by  innuendo  and  insinuated  by  clandestine 
hate.  On  Aug.  6,  1779,  Congress  voted  to  dis 
charge  Deane  from  further  attendance,  and  the 
several  agents  and  Commissioners  were  ordered  to 
send  in,  without  delay,  their  accounts  and  vouchers 
for  settlement. 

On  Aug.  1 6,  Deane  sent  Congress  a  memorial, 
recounting  the  main  facts  of  his  mission,  and  urging 
that  some  one  be  appointed  to  audit  his  accounts 
and  pay  the  balance,  as  his  private  fortune  had 
suffered  seriously  because  of  his  service  for  the 
public. 

On  Aug.  26,  he  received  an  order  from  the  con 
tinental  treasurer  for  ten  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars,  "in  full  consideration  of  time  and  expenses 
during  attendance  on  Congress  from  June  4,  1778, 
to  Aug.  6,  1779."  Paper  money  was  worth  five 


158  Silas  Deane 

cents  on  a  dollar,  and  Deane  refused  this  pittance 
as  wholly  inadequate  and  unfair. 

On  Nov.  1 6,  Deane  wrote  Congress  expressing 
his  zeal  for  his  country,  and  his  purpose  soon  to 
return  to  France  to  vindicate  that  which  was 
dearer  than  life  or  fortune, — his  honor  and 
character. 

He  left  America  June  14,  1780,  assured  that  his 
accounts  would  be  audited  on  presentation  with 
vouchers;  he  reached  France,  July  27,  and  was 
received  by  Franklin  to  his  lodgings. 

The  most  vivid  imagination  cannot  exaggerate 
the  keenness  of  Deane's  disappointment  at  the 
outcome  of  his  stay  in  Philadelphia. 

He  came  after  two  years'  absence,  conscious 
that  he  had  well  fulfilled  the  charge  of  the  Com 
mittee;  he  was  on  board  D'Estaing's  flagship,  in 
company  with  his  friend  Gerard,  the  Minister, 
whose  coming  had  been  made  possible  by  the 
treaty  which  Deane  had  the  honor  to  sign. 

He  came  to  a  city  of  which  he  wrote  a  year 
later: 

It  may  at  this  instant  be  truly  said  there  are  few 
unhappier  cities  on  the  globe  than  Philadelphia:  the 
reverse  of  its  name  is  its  present  character.  It  is  a 
melancholy  reflection  to  think  that,  whilst  our 
common  enemy  is  wasting  our  sea  coasts  and  laying 


Congress  Hostile  159 

our  fairest  and  most  peaceable  towns  in  ashes,  we  are 
quarreling  among  ourselves,  and  can  scarcely  be  con 
strained  from  plunging  our  swords  into  each  other's 
bosoms. 

He  came  to  meet  the  coolness,  the  averted  faces, 
the  hostility  of  the  Congress,  where  he  had  been  a 
peer  of  the  best  statesmen  of  America,  before  the 
reign  of  selfish  cabals  and  the  junto  rule. 

He  was  compelled  to  stand  at  the  closed  doors  of 
that  Congress  and  plead  for  a  hearing;  he  was 
compelled  to  endure  the  ignominy  of  groundless 
charges,  made  through  venomous  rumor  and 
underhanded  spite. 

During  the  fourteen  months  of  waiting  on  men 
whose  indifference  and  neglect  were  cruel  and 
heart-breaking,  he  was  summoned  but  twice  to 
meet  the  Congress  that  had  recalled  him  upon  a 
pretense;  he  was  treated  like  a  criminal,  without 
a  criminal's  opportunity  to  hear  the  charges  and 
answer  the  complaint. 

No  wonder  deep-seated  discouragement  was 
planted  in  his  mind. 


CHAPTER X 
DEANE' s  SECOND  MISSION  TO  FRANCE  A  FAILURE 

HPHE  warning  of  Deane's  friend  Hosmer,  that 
*  the  conspirators  would  ''wear  him  out  by 
delay,"  was  coming  true.  Compare  his  prospects 
and  courage  when  he  went  out  in  1776,  or  when  he 
returned  in  1778,  with  his  feelings  when  he  went  to 
France  in  1780,  after  two  years  of  the  most  anxious 
and  harassing  struggle,  disappointment,  hostility, 
and  ingratitude. 

^It  is  true  that  he  was  relieved  of  the  daily 
irritations  of  Arthur  Lee's  suspicious  and  schem 
ing  presence,  but  there  were  allies  of  Lee  who 
thwarted  Deane  at  every  turn.  He  missed  the 
wise  and  genial  friendliness  of  Franklin,  but  he 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Robert  Morris,  who 
wrote  Jay,  Aug.  16,  1778:  "Many  persons  whom 
you  know  are  very  liberal  of  illiberality.  Your 
friend  Deane,  who  hath  rendered  the  most  essential 
services,  stands  as  one  accused.  The  storm  in- 

160 


Second  Mission  to  France         161 

creases,  and  I  think  some  one  of  the  tall  trees 
must  be  torn  up  by  the  roots." 

The  next  month  Morris  wrote:  "I  think  our 
friend  Deane  has  much  public  merit,  has  been 
ill-used,  but  will  rise  superior  to  his  enemies." 

Morris  knew  what  it  was  to  pass  through  a 
storm  of  calumny  and  detraction,  as  did  Washing 
ton  and  Franklin,  but  Deane's  situation  was 
peculiarly  unfortunate,  because  of  the  combination 
of  personal  ambition  and  prejudice,  financial  de 
pression,  and  the  complicated  system  whereby  the 
supplies  were  secured.  Deane  was  waiting  on 
Congress  at  its  ebb-tide, — a  time  partially  ex 
plained  by  Prof.  W.  G.  Sumner  in  his  Finances  of 
the  Revolution,  when  he  says,  "The  failure  of 
requisitions  in  the  American  Revolution  must  be 
referred  to  the  all-pervading  lack  of  organization 
and  the  low  vitality  of  the  Union." 

He  came  hither  in  d'Estaing's  flagship  with 
Gerard,  the  French  minister ;  he  went  back  after  a 
vain  attempt  to  sweep  away  a  poisoned  atmos 
phere  of  innuendo  and  malice. 

The  one  thing,  which  proved  to  be  in  the  same 
class  with  the  rest  of  his  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
Congress,  was  the  assurance  of  Congress  that 
an  officer  would  be  appointed  to  examine  and  pass 
upon  his  accounts. 


162  Silas  Deane 

He  carried  a  letter  which  Morris  wrote  him 
March  31,  1780,  in  which  he  said: 

Reflecting  on  the  unrestricted  abuse  you  have 
suffered,  and  not  knowing  whether  you  have  any 
evidence  with  you  to  show  that  your  particular  friends 
were  not  infected  with  the  pestilence  of  the  times,  I 
have  suddenly  and  hesitatingly  scribbled  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Franklin,  in  which  I  have  expressed  pretty  con 
cisely  the  sentiments  due  to  him,  you  and  myself.  I 
consider  that  we  have  been  fellow-laborers  in  the 
vineyard,  and  although  our  works  speak  for  them 
selves  before  that  impartial  Master,  who  knows  all 
actions,  and  the  secret  springs  that  give  rise  to  them, 
yet  the  evidence  of  one  honest  man  in  favor  of  an 
other  is  but  too  often  necessary  to  protect  virtue  and 
innocence  against  the  shaft  of  malice  and  envy  in 
this  short-sighted  world. 

^Morris's  letter  to  Franklin  has  the  same  date  as 
the  above,  and  in  it  we  read : 

I  do  not  know  that  what  I  am  going  to  write  is 
necessary,  or  that  Mr.  Deane  will  thank  me,  but  he 
has  always  manifested  a  warm  attachment  to  your 
person  and  character  before  Congress;  it  might  be 
some  satisfaction  to  you  and  him  to  have  a  testimony 
of  this  kind  from  a  friend  to  you  both,  who,  having 

,  nothing  to  seek  or  ask  for  yourself,  can  mean  nothing 
but  to  promote  that  harmony  and  friendship  which 
he  wishes  to  continue  between  two  worthy  men.  I 

:  consider  Mr.  Deane  as  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of 
America.  After  rendering  the  most  signal  and  im 
portant  services,  he  has  been  reviled  'and  traduced  in 


Second  Mission  to  France         163 

the  most  shameful  manner.  But  I  have  not  a  doubt 
the  day  will  come  when  his  merit  shall  be  universally 
acknowledged,  and  the  authors  of  those  calumnies 
held  in  the  detestation  they  deserve. 

My  own  fate  has  been  in  some  degree  similar. 
After  four  years  of  indefatigable  service,  I  have  been 
reviled  and  traduced  for  a  long  time  by  whispers 
and  insinuations,  which  at  length  were  'fortunately 
wrought  up  to  public  charges,  which  gave  me  an 
opportunity  to  show  how  groundless,  how  malicious 
these  things  were ;  how  innocent  and  honest  my  trans 
actions.  My  enemies,  ashamed  of  their  persecutions, 
have  quitted  the  pursuit,  and  I  am  in  peaceable 
possession  of  the  most  honorable  station  my  ambi 
tion  aspires  to,  that  of  a  private  citizen  of  a  free 
state.  Yourself,  my  good  Sir,  have  had  a  share  in 
these  calamities,  but  the  malice,  which  gave  them 
vent,  was  so  evident,  as  to  destroy  its  own  poison: 
they  could  not  cast  even  a  cloud  over  your  justly  and 
much-revered  character.  These  things  have  taught 
me  a  lesson  of  philosophy,  which  may  be  of  service. 
I  find  most  useful  members  of  society  have  most 
enemies,  because  there  is  a  number  of  envious  beings 
in  human  shape;  and  if  my  opinion  of  mankind  in 
general  is  grown  worse  from  my  experience  of  them, 
that  very  circumstance  raises  my  veneration  for  those 
characters  that  justly  merit  the  applause  of  virtuous 
men.  In  this  light  I  view  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr. 
Deane,  and  under  this  view  of  them  I  assert,  with 
an  honest  confidence,  that  I  have  a  just  and  equit 
able  title  to  a  return  of  that  friendship  which  I 
think  is  honorable  to  profess  for  them,  with  that 
degree  of  truth  and  affection  which  impresses  me 
with  it. 


164  Silas  Deane 

Dearie's  temper  as  he  set  out  on  his  second  mis 
sion  to  Europe  is  suggested  in  a  letter  to  his  brother 
Barnabas,  written  two  months  before  he  sailed: 

I  hope  in  ten  days  to  set  my  face  for  Europe.  My 
heart  has  long  been  sick,  not  of  America,  but  with 
distress  for  her.  .  .  .  You  will  think  that  I  write  in 
a  desponding  turn  of  mind.  I  do  not,  but  I  am  not 
gay.  A  consciousness  of  the  rectitude  of  my  intentions 
supports  me,  and  I  trust  will  to  the  last,  whatever 
may  happen. 

Unable  to  leave  the  country  at  the  time  ap 
pointed,  he  wrote  April  23,  to  a  friend:  "I  leave 
the  country  with  a  heavy  and  foreboding  heart :  I 
have  had  the  fortune  of  Cassandra  hitherto;  my 
dictions  have  been  universally  disbelieved  and 
disregarded,  and  yet  unfortunately  have  been 
fulfilled." 

In  a  letter  to  Joseph  Webb  June  20,  1780,  he 
speaks  of  his  anxiety  concerning  the  Webb  family, 
and  says: 

The  comfort  I  receive  from  a  clear  conscience  affords 
me  some  cheerful  moments  in  the  darkest  scenes .  .  . 
I  hope  in  a  year  or  two  we  can  meet  in  peace  and  at 
ease,  but  if  not,  He  who  directs  knows  best.  I  go 
perfectly  resigned  to  my  fate,  whatever  it  may  be  in 
my  voyage,  and  therefore  am  not  so  unhappy  as  I 
should  otherwise  be. 

To  keep  our  narrative  clearly  in  mind,  we  outline 


Second  Mission  to  France         165 

again  the  case  as  Deane  understood  it  in  his  de 
mands  upon  Congress.  In  his  last  letter  to  Con 
gress  before  sailing,  he  wrote  that  he  agreed  with 
the  Secret  Committee  that  his  expenses  should  be 
borne,  and  a  commission  of  five  per  cent,  allowed. 
Unable,  because  of  lack  of  funds,  to  buy  many  of 
the  goods  ordered,  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
purchase  of  arms,  clothing,  and  cannon,  and  he 
engaged  in  no  private,  commercial  business.  The 
commission  on  the  goods  bought,  up  to  the  time 
he  was  appointed  to  act  jointly  with  Franklin  and 
Lee,  amounted  to  seventy-eight  thousand  seven 
hundred  dollars.  He  also  purchased  and  fitted  out 
fifteen  ships,  most  of  them  being  large  ships,  and 
only  one  miscarried.  He  was  often  embarrassed 
and  hard-pressed  for  money,  and,  but  for  repeated 
and  urgent  application  to  certain  great  personages, 
he  would  have  been  landed  in  ruin.  The  amount 
of  goods,  stores,  and  ships  purchased  by  him 
amounted  to  over  two  million  dollars,  nearly  all 
of  which  landed  safely  in  America,  the  only  ship 
that  was  lost  went  to  Martinique,  contrary  to  his 
orders. 

Soon  after  he  reached  Paris  he  received  a  letter 
from  Robert  Morris  which  must  have  cheered  him. 
It  is  dated  Philadelphia,  July  3,  1780.  Morris 
says: 


i66  Silas  Deane 

You  will  steadily  pursue  the  object  that  induced  you 
to  return  to  Europe,  which  will  enable  you  to  set  your 
transactions  for  America  in  that  just  and  fair  light 
in  which  they  ought  to  stand,  and  give  you  that  high 
share  of  merit  with  your  country  that  I  do  most 
firmly  believe  to  be  justly  your  due.  I  am  deter 
mined  to  keep  myself  clear  of  all  that  public  employ 
ment  which  exposes  an  honest  man  to  the  envy  and 
jealousy  of  mankind,  at  the  same  time  that  it  lays 
him  open  to  the  malicious  attacks  of  every  dirty 
scoundrel  that  deals  in  the  murder  of  reputation. 

There  are  two  grains  of  comfort  in  Deane's 
letter  of  Aug.  4  to  his  brother  Simeon.  He 
says  that  he  finds  his  son  Jesse  just  what  he  could 
wish  him  to  be;  the  other  is  that  Arthur  Lee  had 
sailed  to  America  three  weeks  before.  "He  has 
gone,"  Deane  writes,  "charged  with  all  the  malice 
and  revenge  which  hell  is  capable  of  inspiring  him 
with,  and  for  me.  I  am  determined  to  fight  my 
adversaries,  in  Congress  and  out,  to  the  last,  and 
in  a  manner  that  will  not  cause  my  friends  to 
blush." 

On  reaching  Paris,  Deane  did  not  find  that  his 
reputation  had  suffered  from  the  abuse  he  had 
/  received  in  America,  but  he  did  find  that  the  devo 
tion  of  France  was  cooling,  and  that  the  repudi 
ation  resolutions  of  Congress  of  March  18  had 
ruined  our  credit  in  Europe. 


Second  Mission  to  France         167 

On  Sept.  1 8  he  wrote  Jay  that  it  was  almost 
as  much  a  disgrace  to  be  known  to  be  an  Ameri 
can,  as  it  was  two  years  before  to  be  an  honor; 
that  "Fraudulent,  "Bankrupt,"  were  the  adjec 
tives  used  to  stigmatize  the  insurgents.  He  says : 

I  know  the  weakness  of  Congress,  and  the  malignity 
of  Lee  and  his  associates,  but  the  situation  of  America 
wrings  my  soul :  ruined  by  weak,  distracted  counsels, 
and  betrayed  by  those  in  whom  she  has  confided. 
May  you,  my  worthy  friend,  be  so  happy  as  never  to 
experience  how  painful  and  how  cutting  it  is  to  be 
treated  with  public  ingratitude,  edged  and  driven  on 
by  the  treachery  of  those  in  whom  you  have  con 
fided  ;  you  merit  a  better  fate,  but  that  will  not  secure 
you,  without  the  prudence,  of  which  you  happily  have 
so  great  a  portion,  and  of  which  I  have  so  little. 
France  rings  with  complaints  of  heavy  losses  of  mer 
chants  by  the  depreciation  of  America. 

Many  had  put  large  sums  in  the  Loan  Office 
when  American  paper  money  was  worth  twenty- 
five  cents  on  a  dollar,  but  the  resolution  of  March 
1 8  and  the  circular  letter  of  September  fixed  the 
paper  money  at  two  and  a  half  cents,  and  in  effect 
prevented  any  appreciation  from  that;  and  the 
merchants  in  France  drew  the  inference  that,  if 
Congress  could  annihilate  thirty-nine  fortieths  of 
their  notes,  nothing  prevents  their  extinguishing 
the  residue. 


i68  Silas  Deane 

The  fact  that  Dearie's  own  property,  which 
amounted  to  more  than  fifteen  thousand  dollars, 
when  he  returned  to  Europe,  was  rapidly  diminish 
ing,  did  not  increase  his  cheerfulness. 
i-' 

A  letter  from  John  Jay  of  Oct.  26,  1780,  contains 
ja  plain  recital  of  the  charge  against  Deane  in 
America.  "You  were  blamed,"  Jay  wrote,  "not 
]  for  omitting  finally  to  settle  your  accounts  in 
Frarice,  but  for  not  being  in  a  capacity  to  show, 
when  in  America,  how  far  your  measures  were 
prudent.  I  think  some  of  them  were,  and  some 
were  not."  Jay  criticizes  him  for  feeling  resent 
ful  toward  the  American  people,  but  gently  adds : 
"There  are  comparatively  not  many  who,  under 
similar  circumstances,  either  think  right,  or  act  so. 
I  believe  you  honest,  and  I  think  you  injured." 
He  urges  Deane  to  sift  and  discover  the  exact 
evidence  concerning  the  duplicity  of  his  enemies. 

In  reply,  Deane  said  he  had  given  the  accounts, 
so  far  as  he  could,  without  actual  and  minute 
settlement ;  that  within  six  weeks  of  his  arrival  he 
had  laid  before  Congress  an  authentic  account  of 
all  moneys  received  or  paid  out,  and  a  general 
account  of  what  they  had  been  paid  for. 

He  thanks  Jay  for  questioning  the  prudence  of 
some  of  his  measures,  adding : 


Second  Mission  to  France         169 

I  confess,  on  reflection,  I  do  not  approve  of  all  the 
measures  I  took,  but  they  were  such  as  the  time 
dictated,  and  such  as  at  the  time  I  thought  most 
prudent.  Though,  viewed  at  this  distance,  they  may 
be  deemed  less  prudent  than  they  really  were,  I  find 
most  of  them  produced  real  benefits  to  America,  and 
that  the  worst  consequences  of  any  of  them  have 
fallen  solely  on  myself. 

Who  can  deny  the  justice  of  the  complaint 
that  follows?  "Allowing  some  or  all  of  my  mea 
sures  to  have  been  imprudent,  still  my  complaint 
lies  against  Congress,  for  not  informing  me  of  what 
I  had  done  wrong,  that  I  might  have  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  vindicating  myself  in  the  best  manner 
in  my  power." 

Then  he  gives  another  evidence  of  the  conspiracy 
which  had  drawn  its  malignant  nets  around  him, 
saying : 

With  respect  to  the  duplicity  of  some  of  my  pre 
tended  friends  in  Congress,  I  had  some  suspicion  be 
fore  I  left  America,  and  since,  I  have  full  proof  of  it. 
Letters  sent  from  hence  with  express  orders  to  be  com 
mitted  to  me,  and  to  be  made  use  of  in  Congress  for 
my  justification,  were  suppressed.  I  know  they  were 
received,  and  I  have  copies  of  them,  which  is  more. 
The  persons  capable  of  this,  who  appeared  on  all  occa 
sions  publicly  to  support  me  against  the  Lee  faction, 
since  the  displacing  of  those  men,  hatW declared  that 
they  had  no  view  of  serving  me  or  my  cause,  but  to 
make  use  of  both  to  destroy  the  Lee  interests. 


170  Silas  Deane 

Then  follows  a  gloomy  prophecy;  the  suffering 
had  been  so  long  and  so  continuous  that  his  brave 
heart  was  bending. 

I  have  nearly  finished  [he  wrote]  the  settlement  of 
my  accounts  and  those  of  the  Commission,  the  result 
of  which  is  a  large  balance  in  my  favor.  Will  this 
establish  my  reputation,  and  procure  justice  for  in 
juries  I  have  received  in  character  and  fortune?  I 
do  not  flatter  myself  with  any  such  hope. 

The  reason  for  this  desponding  mood  is  clear 
sighted  and  convincing : 

The  men  to  whom  I  am  to  apply  for  this  justice  are 
those  who  have  injured  me,  and,  in  doing  it,  must 
condemn  themselves — a  self-denial  or  heroism  not  to 
be  expected  from  them ;  but,  supposing  them  capable 
of  this,  will  it  recall  the  envenomed  shafts  of  calumny 
shot  at  me  from  behind  their  shield?  I  grant  that 
the  bulk  of  the  people  mean  well,  but  from  a  suspicion 
that  the  greater  part  of  men  in  public  employ  are  dis 
honest,  a  suspicion  at  this  time  more  prevalent  with 
the  people  of  America  than  with  any  other,  you  will 
find  fifty,  nay  one  hundred,  who  will  receive  with  open 
ears  a  calumny,  and  will  propagate  the  same  with  as 
much  industry  as  if  their  character  and  interest  de 
pended  on  its  being  spread  and  believed — to  a  single 
one  who  will  take  any  pains  to  undeceive  himself  and 
others. 

He  adds  that  many  in  Congress  knew  that  he 
entered  public  service  with  fair  character  and  easy 


Second  Mission  to  France         171 

fortune,  and  all  America  knew  that,  however  im 
prudent  some  of  his  measures  appear,  he  rendered 
essential  service  to  his  country.  The  French 
officers  he  commissioned  either  did  good  service, 
or  were  sent  home;  yet  Congress  refuses  to  do 
anything  to  rescue  his  reputation,  investigate  the 
charges,  or  rescue  the  fortune  spent  in  its  service. 

A  few  days  later  he  writes  John  Paul  Jones  a 
letter  of  sympathy  and  appreciation  of  his  ardor 
and  patriotism.  Jones  had  suffered  from  Arthur 
Lee's  selfishness  and  discourtesy. 

There  is  a  letter  of  Beaumarchais  to  Vergennes 
of  the  date  of  Dec.  2,  1780,  which  shows  how  the 
clouds  of  trouble  are  gathering  about  Deane. 
The  men  to  whom  he  had  intrusted  his  money 
failed  him,  some  of  them  dishonestly,  and  the  de 
preciation  in  America  weakened  him.  Beaumar 
chais  says: 

Poor  Mr.  Deane,  brought  to  Europe  to  conclude  all 
business  he  had  undertaken  for  Congress,  and  expect 
ing  to  find  funds  to  enable  him  to  live  here  until  his 
return,  or  the  settlement  of  his  accounts  would  re 
imburse  him  for  all  his  advances,  now  finds  himself 
without  the  means  of  subsistence;  he  has  applied  to 
Dr.  Franklin,  but  he  has  no  authority  for  furnishing 
money.  I  am  the  only  person  to  whom  he  has  entirely 
confided,  and  he  shows  a  bitterness  that  borders  on 
something  worse.  I  am  so  embarrassed,  I  can  offer 
him  only  temporary  assistance. 


172  Silas  Deane 

What  follows,  Beaumarchais  would  probably 
have  put  stronger  ten  years  later,  after  his  own 
trying  experience  of  the  ingratitude  of  a  re 
public.  ''After  his  departure  I  reflected  that  it 
was  perhaps  a  grave  political  error  to  drive  to 
desperation  those  who  have  rendered  important 
service  to  the  state,  as  the  contemptible  new  re 
publican  country  does  to  all  deserving  men  who 
have  forwarded  her  interests. " 

On  Feb.  23,  1781,  Deane  wrote  his  brother 
Simeon  a  gloomy  letter.  He  thinks  that  no  more 
troops  or  money  can  be  secured  from  France,  and 
with  neither  money,  nor  credit,  nor  friends,  in 
dependence  is  out  of  the  question.  He  complains 
that,  while  he  has  nearly  closed  his  accounts,  the 
auditor,  Mr.  Johnson,  whom  Congress  had  ap 
pointed,  had  declined  to  act.  Deane  does  not 
know  what  to  do ;  some  days  he  thinks  he  will 
return  to  America  with  his  accounts,  but  the  un 
certainty  deters  him.  He  fears  the  coming  sea 
son  will  increase  the  distraction  and  distress.  The 
war  between  England  and  Holland  is  unfavorable 
to  us,  for  France  and  Spain  depend  largely  on 
Holland  for  supplies.  He  learns  that  England 
is  in  high  spirits,  and  has  nearly  one  hundred 
men-of-war  on  the  stocks,  and  forty  ships  of  the 
line  building. 


Second  Mission  to  France         173 

Out  of  the  depression  of  an  empty  pocket,  and 
the  cljud  of  calumny  that  was  about  him,  he  adds : 
11  Unless  our  finances  can  be  well  established,  army 
increased  and  supported,  and  national  and  internal 
forces  of  the  Continent  brought  to  act  with  con 
sistency  and  energy,  the  game  will  soon  be  up." 

He  writes  his  brother  Barnabas  that  balances 
have  been  refused  him  until  the  original  vouchers 
have  been  examined  in  Philadelphia.  "Judge  my 
feelings  and  suffering!"  he  exclaims. 

A  wholesome  letter  from  John  Jay  of  the  date 
of  Mar.  28,  1781,  reached  Deane  in  the  midnight 
of  his  depression.  Would  that  its  wise  counsels 
had  been  followed !  As  is  apt  to  be  the  case  under 
such  conditions,  Deane  was  talking  too  much. 
Jay  writes : 

Mr.  Carmichael  has  been  informed  (I  believe  by 
letter  from  some  person  in  France)  that  you  had,  in 
some  late  conversation  on  American  affairs,  spoken 
much  to  their  disadvantage,  and  in  a  manner  very  dis 
couraging.  You  must  be  sensible  that  such  reports 
will  be  no  less  prejudicial  to  you  in  America  than  in 
Europe.  Your  reasons  for  not  publishing  your  de 
fense  at  present  do  you  honor.  Let  me  advise  you, 
however,  to  omit  no  opportunity  of  authenticating 
the  facts  essential  to  it,  and  to  hold  yourself  constantly 
in  readiness  to  seize  the  first  proper  opportunity  of 
convincing  the  world,  that  you  merit  the  thanks,  not 
the  reproaches,  of  your  country.  I  believe  you  inno- 


174  Silas  Deane 

cent  of  the  malversations  imputed  to  you,  and  I  feel 
for  you  the  sympathy  which  such  an  opinion  must 
create  in  every  honest  mind.  In  this  enlightened 
age,  when  the  noise  of  passion  and  party  shall  have 
subsided,  the  voice  of  truth  will  be  heard  and  attended 
to.  It  is  too  true  that  mere  private  altercations  have 
little  effect  upon  the  public  mind,  few  thinking  it 
worth  their  while  to  examine  the  merits  of  a  dispute 
important  only  to  the  parties.  This  is  not  your 
case:  your  commission,  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  executed,  will  ever  be  interesting  to  America, 
and  therefore  America  will  ever  be  ready  to  hear 
your  cause,  and  to  determine  it  justly  according  to 
evidence. 

The  opinion  of  the  great  jurist  has  been  justified, 
but  the  verification  came  too  late  for  the  relief  of 
Deane.  Fifty  years  after  his  death  the  accounts 
were  thoroughly  sifted,  and  his  cause  established. 

In  a  letter  to  Jay  of  April  8,  1781,  speaking  of 
Jay's  criticism  upon  his  disparaging  remarks  about 
America,  which  tended  to  discourage  and  preju 
dice,  Deane  says  he  only  spoke  the  truth,  and  he 
thought  it  far  wiser  to  do  that  than  follow  the 
method  of  many  like  Searles,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  who,  while  in  Europe,  gave  such  a  rose-col 
ored  view  of  our  affairs,  that  the  French  were  led 
to  imagine  that  we  had  little  need  of  further  help. 

Perhaps  Deane  went  to  the  opposite  extreme: 
he  certainly  had  an  experience  of  his  own,  which 


Second  Mission  to  France         175 

made  it  possible  for  him  to  draw  a  dark  picture. 
He  admits  that  he  told  Vergennes  five  months 
before,  that  nothing  short  of  money  to  support 
army  and  navy  could  save  America;  that  our 
finances  were  totally  deranged,  commerce  nearly 
ruined,  naval  force  next  to  nothing,  army  suffering 
for  lack  of  pay  and  clothing,  and  instant  relief 
absolutely  necessary.  A  letter  from  Washing 
ton  about  the  same  time  to  Vergennes  justified 
Deane's  contention,  and  fixed  the  relief  of  America 
solely  on  a  supply  of  money  for  the  army,  and  also 
a  superior  naval  force,  without  which  the  cause 
of  the  colonists  must  soon  fall. 

A  glimpse  of  the  widespread  conspiracy  to  ruin 
Deane  is  seen  in  a  letter  from  Jonathan  Williams, 
an  honest  American.  The  letter  is  dated  at 
Nantes,  April  18,  1781,  in  which  he  speaks  of 
Thomas  Paine,  then  in  Europe,  as  an  enemy  of 
Deane  and  friend  of  the  Lees  and  Izard,  and  says 
he  hopes  that  after  a  longer  stay  there  he  will 
become  acquainted  with  the  Lee  rascalities,  and, 
like  all  other  good  men,  despise  the  wretch. 

On  May  15,  1781,  Deane  wrote  Congress  that 
Johnson,  who  had  been  appointed  to  examine  his  < 
accounts,  declined  to  serve.     Deane  again  reviews ' 
the  case  and   entreats  Congress  to  do  him  the 
justice  he  seeks. 


176  Silas  Deane 

My  enemies  [he  laments]  represented  me  as  a 
defaulter,  grown  rich  out  of  the  public  moneys  in  my 
hands,  and  prejudiced  the  minds  of  Congress  so  strongly 
against  me,  that  my  efforts  in  America  to  obtain  even 
a  hearing  were  vain  and  ineffectual.  My  present 
condition,  as  well  as  state  of  my  accounts,  gives  the 
lie  to  every  assertion  or  insinuation  of  that  kind; 
yet  I  am  still  left  to  suffer  under  the  calumny  in 
America  and  to  be  obliged  to  strangers  for  money 
for  my  support. 

In  those  dark  days  of  poverty  and  worry  in 
Paris,  as  he  walked  through  the  gay  streets,  or 
brooded  in  his  lodgings,  a  letter  came  from  Robert 
Morris,  dated  June  7,  1781,  which  must  have  com 
forted  him.  Morris  rejoices  to  hear  of  Deane's 
safe  arrival  in  France,  because  it  will 

enable  you  to  justify  by  incontestable  facts  and 
proofs  that  character  which  has  been  so  exceedingly 
traduced,  and  which  I  long  to  see  placed  in  that  respec 
table  and  meritorious  point  of  view,  which  I  believe 
it  deserves;  and  the  sooner  you  show  your  conduct 
in  regard  to  money  matters  to  have  been  strictly  con 
sistent  with  that  honor  and  integrity,  that  I  believe 
to  have  attended  you  through  life,  the  better;  as 
the  infamous  behavior  of  Arnold  has  put  a  weapon 
into  the  hands  of  your  enemies,  which  they  make  use 
of  to  this  day  by  giving  you  now  and  then  a  slashing 
stroke,  in>  coupling  his  name  and  yours  together  in 
their  publications,  and  always  affecting  to  speak  of 
you  as  a  condemned  man. 


Second  Mission  to  France         17? 

Morris  refers  to  his  recent  appointment  to  the 
office  of  "Superintendent  of  Finance,"  and  closes 
with :  "  I  long  to  see  the  day  when  you  shall  honor 
ably  remove  those  aspersions  which  have  been 
cast,  and  those  suspicions  that  have  been  raised, 
by  your  rancorous  enemies. " 

In  June,  Deane  wrote  his  brother  Simeon  of 
his  disappointment  in  his  attempt  to  settle  with 
M.  Sabatier. 

A  month  later  he  wrote  Jay  a  gloomy  letter 
in  which  he  spoke  of  his  thankfulness  that  he  had 
not  been  prejudiced  against  his  old  friend  by 
Carmichael.  He  adds:  "Spain  is  not  friendly  to 
us;  Holland  has  refused  to  receive  Adams's 
credentials,  nor  can  we  raise  money  there.  I  set 
out  to-morrow  for  a  tour  of  the  Netherlands  and 
Holland.1' 

Learning  early  in  September  that  Arthur  Lee's 
accounts,  though  neither  audited  in  Europe  nor 
offered  for  audit,  had  been  passed  by  the  board 
of  accounts  in  Philadelphia,  Deane  was  encour 
aged  to  write  Morris,  enclosing  his  accounts, 
though  without  the  vouchers,  as  he  had  no  dupli 
cates;  he  explained  in  detail  the  whole  situation: 
that  his  commission  was  only  upon  the  goods 
bought  prior  to  his  election  as  Commissioner  with 
Franklin  and  Lee,  and  was  according  to  a  contract 


\ 


1 78  Silas  Deane 

with  the  Secret  Committee.  He  said  that  he 
might  have  taken  his  pay  out  of  the  funds  in  his 
hands,  as  others  had  done,  but  he  had  preferred 
to  leave  the  settlement  to  Congress. 

"Some,"  he  says,  "acted  differently,  and  find 
themselves  at  easy  circumstances,  uncensured  by 
Congress  or  public  voice.  Had  I  done  the  same, 
I  might  possibly  have  escaped  the  obloquy  thrown 
on  me,  at  least  I  should  have  escaped  the  distress 
the  last  two  years  involved. " 

After  a  year  of  fruitless  endeavor  in  Paris  to 
obtain  a  settlement,  there  came  to  Deane  a  letter 
from  Beaumarchais,  which  exposes  the  emptiness 
of  some  of  Lee's  lies.  Reviewing  Deane's  mission 
to  buy  supplies  without  resources  or  credit,  other 
than  the  authority  of  his  credentials,  he  writes: 

I  recall  the  ardor,  the  care,  the  persistency,  and 
the  exertions  with  which  you  commenced,  continued, 
and  finally  concluded  the  delicate  task  of  forwarding 
the  consignments  prepared  by  me  for  shipment  to 
America.  If  your  enemies  have  subsequently  suc 
ceeded  in  belittling  the  value  of  your  political  or 
commercial  services  in  the  opinion  of  those  whom  you 
represented,  it  is  a  misfortune  for  your  country  and 
for  you ;  and  as  witness  of  your  exertions  to  serve  your 
country,  I  cannot  but  deplore  it. 

It  was  these  very  services  that  inspired  me  with  the 
greatest  regard,  esteem,  and  friendship  for  you,  es 
pecially,  since  our  ministry  and  all  intelligent  men  in 


Second  Mission  to  France         179 

our  nation  have,  in  common  with  myself,  invariably 
recalled  your  sagacity,  ability,  and  irreproachable 
conduct.  I  recall  that  you  inadvertently  mentioned 
that  Congress  promised  you  a  commission  of  five  per 
cent.,  I  suspect  that  you  are  anxious  for  the  fulfillment 
of  the  promise ;  I  cannot  hear  without  distress  that  the 
first  representative,  and  one  whose  ability  and  ex 
ertions  have  rendered  me  efficient  aid,  should  remain 
without  sufficient  remuneration.  I  have  therefore 
decided  to  offer  you  two  per  cent,  commission  on  all  / 
returns  I  may  receive  from  Congress,  whether  money  / 
or  goods  of  the  ten  per  cent,  allowed  me,  in  case  Con 
gress  absolutely  refuses  you  any  commission.  This 
will  be  a  poor  return  for  your  trouble. 

This  was  a  kind  and  generous  letter,  and  the 
offer  does  credit  to  Beaumarchais'  noble  heart, 
but  how  little  he  realized  how  keen  was  to  be  his 
own  suffering  at  the  hands  of  the  Congress,  which 
permitted  Deane  to  endure  such  misery;  and  that 
fifty  years  would  pass  before  his  own  daughter 
would  receive  even  a  quarter  of  the  just  dues  of 
her  father,  dying  in  poverty  a  generation  before. 

On  Sept.  13,  Deane  wrote  his  brother  Barnabas 
that  he  was  ill  with  fever. 

My  patience  is  exhausted  [he  says]  and  my  affairs 
ruined  by  the  unexampled  conduct  of  Congress, 
who  have  detained  me  here, —  it  is  now  more  than  a 
year, — waiting  for  the  appointment  of  an  auditor  to 
settle  my  accounts,  which  in  reality  I  believe  they 
never  wish  or  desire  to  have  settled. 


i8o  Silas  Deane 

On  Sept.  19,  1781,  Deane  wrote  James  Wilson 
of  the  financial  discouragements  and  losses  he  had 
sustained:  everything  on  which  he  had  built  his 
hopes  had  failed — the  mast  contracts,  Loan 
Office  certificates,  and  the  appointment  of  an 
auditor. 

At  the  close,  he  said  he  believed  De  Grasse  and 
Rodney  had  both  gone  to  the  Continent.  He 
was  mistaken  there.  How  different  would  have 
been  his  expectation  for  America,  could  he  have 
seen  that  at  that  time  De  Grasse  was  on  his  way 
from  the  West  Indies  to  Yorktown  with  a  powerful 
fleet  and  large  reinforcements  of  soldiers,  and 
that  within  a  month  Cornwallis  would  surrender. 

On  Sept.  26,  he  wrote  his  brother  Barnabas  of 
the  gloomy  prospects  for  America  and  of  his 
unhappiness. 

On  the  same  date  he  wrote  John  Jay  of  the 
newspapers  coupling  him  with  Duane  and  Arnold, 
and  says  he  thinks  that  the  licentiousness  in 
stigmatizing  men  in  public  trust  with  the  vilest 
and  most  abusive  epithets  and  characters,  a  fatal 
symptom  of  the  universal  anarchy,  which  is  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  monarchy  at  the  door. 

On  Oct.  20,  he  wrote  from  Ghent  to  Benj. 
Tallmadge,  lamenting  the  prospect  of  dependence 
on  France,  which  had  twenty  thousand  veterans  in 


Second  Mission  to  France         181 

America,  and  says  he  may  remain  two  or  three 
months  in  Ghent ;  he  is  sick  of  Paris  though  treated 
there  with  generosity  and  kindness. 

This  brings  us  to  the  critical  and  dangerous 
attitude  which  Deane  took  in  the  fateful  summer  of 
1781,  when  burdened  by  illness,  worry,  a'n3  pov 
erty  ;  heart-sick  with  the  long  delay  of  Congress ;  his 
courage  weakened  by  his  struggle  with  the  veno 
mous  and  underhanded  conspiracy,  he  wrote 
letters  which  followed  him  to  his  lonely  grave  in 
the  old  churchyard  in  the  town  of  Deal  on  the 
south  coast  of  England. 


CHAPTER  XI 


DEANE'S  REPUBLICANISM  WEAKENS 


HPHE  gloom  gathering  in  the  mind  of  Deane 
through  multiplying  misfortunes,  and  brood 
ing  over  the  condition  of  his  country,  found  ex 
pression  in  the  early  summer  of  1 78 1 ,  in  nine  letters 
which  he  wrote  to  friends  in  America,  in  which  he 
gave  expression  to  suggestions,  damaging  to  him 
self,  and,  had  they  been  adopted,  most  injurious 
to  his  country. 

They  are  the  so-called  "Paris  Papers, "  other 
wise  known  as  the  "  Intercepted  Letters/'  They 
were  written  to  intimate  friends,  with  no  expec 
tation  that  they  would  sway  the  fortunes  of 
America, — a  supposition  requiring  an  egotism  in 
Deane,  of  which  we  have  no  evidence  elsewhere. 

The  question  why  he  wrote  the  letters  must  be 
laid  aside  with  the  question  why  many  of  us, 
when  tired,  nervous,  and  discouraged,  do  not  keep 
quiet. 

The  vessel,  which  sailed  from  L'Orient  in  June, 
1781,  carrying  those  missives  of  a  mind  hurt  by 

182 


Discouraged  183 

ingratitude  and  disappointment,  beginning  to  feel 
the  iron  of  three  long  years  of  conspiracy  and 
enmity  entering  the  very  heart  of  courage  and 
enterprise,  was  captured  by  the  British. 

They  were  published  by  the  Rivingtons,  a 
Tory  firm  of  New  York,  in  The  Royal  Gazette,  and 
afterwards  in  book  form. 

The  first  is  dated  June  14,  1781,  Paris,  and  was 
addressed  to  Col.  Wm.  Duer,  whom  Deane  then 
believed  to  be  his  friend. 

He  asks  why  continue  the  war.  Congress  is 
weakened  by  cabals  and  mismanagement.  "Let 
them  acknowledge  their  inability,"  he  writes, 
"weigh  fairly  the  probable  chances  of  success  to 
establish  Independent  Sovereignty,  and  if  they 
find  the  probability  against  it,  honestly  confess  it 
and  put  an  end  to  the  calamities  of  the  country. " 
He  speaks  of  his  dismal  fate  to  play  the  Cassandra, 
and  prophesy  disaster,  and  adds,  "The  cold  hand 
of  despair  is  upon  me. " 

On  June  i ,  he  wrote  Robert  Morris  of  the  folly 
of  continuing  a  process  of  exhausting  and  ruining 
one  another. 

Who  will  be  the  gainers?  he  asks.  Will  sovereignty, 
in  the  hands  of  a  democracy,  be  a  government 
under  which  our  persons  and  property  will  be  better 
secured  than  before  the  contest  began?  Will  the 


184  Silas  Deane 

country    flourish    more    under    independency,    than 
while  connected  with  Great  Britain? 

In  reading  these  words  in  the  light  of  succeeding 
history,  we  need  to  make  a  distinct  effort  to  place 
ourselves  at  the  point  of  view  of  a  man  who  for 
three  years  had  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  Congress 
to  take  the  first  steps  toward  fair  dealing;  a 
man,  who  had  been  a  member  of  that  legislative 
body,  had  been  commissioned  by  a  committee  of 
its  ablest  men,  and  had  successfully  performed  the 
task  given  him  in  France,  in  the  judgment  of  Ver- 
gennes,  Franklin,  Jay,  and  Morris. 

Deane  had  many  needless  fears  about  the 
commerce  of  the  country,  believing  that  the  enmity 
of  Great  Britain  would  be  a  serious  menace  to  it. 
He  is  convinced  that  England  could  hurt  us  by 
duties,  restrictions,  and  prohibitions  far  more  than 
France  could  help  us. 

Speaking  of  the  complaint  that  England  in 
cluded  America  in  the  Navigation  Act,  he  says  that 
we  shared  in  the  protection  of  the  British  navy, 
which  grew  strong  enough  to  defend  us  as  the  result 
of  that  policy.  We  complained  that  we  were  re 
strained  from  carrying  certain  articles  to  other  mark 
ets,  but  British  subjects  were  generally  restrained 
from  importing  the  same  from  other  countries,  and 
England  gave  us  the  monopoly  of  her  markets. 


Discouraged  185 

We  were  prohibited  from  taking  from  foreigners 
articles  we  wanted,  though  not  the  growth  or 
fabric  of  England,  but  these  were  very  inconsider 
able.  Goods  made  in  England  are  more  solid 
and  substantial  than  others.  The  complaint 
that  England  does  not  allow  foreigners  to  bring 
their  produce  and  merchandise  to  us  is  absurd. 

That  is  the  way  England  has  built  up  her  com 
merce,  and  we  may  be  required  to  adopt  similar 
methods.  In  punctuality,  generosity,  and  quality 
England  surpasses  all  other  nations. 

How  can  we  pay  for  the  goods  we  need?  Eng 
land  gave  us  the  preference  in  iron,  naval  stores, 
potash,  flaxseed,  and  timber,  and  encouraged  their 
introduction  by  bounties.  With  independence 
all  this  will  change.  Deane  says  he  once  supposed 
that  England  could  not  support  her  manufactures 
and  commerce  without  American  goods,  but  he 
has  changed  his  opinion,  for  he  finds  that  she  can 
get  tobacco  and  rice  as  cheaply  from  other  coun 
tries,  and  that  Cuban  and  Brazilian  tobacco  is 
superior  to  American. 

Deane  borrows  a  good  deal  of  trouble  over  our 
commerce.  He  says  that  when  we  are  independent, 
we  can  go  where  we  please,  but  not  find  purchasers 
where  we  please,  and  nations  will  lay  what  im 
positions  they  please  on  our  sales.  The  northern 


\ 


i86  Silas  Deane 

powers  of  Europe  have  similar  articles  to  sell  with 
ours ;  Spain  and  Portugal  only  call  for  our  flour  and 
fish.  If  England  loses  the  thirteen  colonies,  she 
will  make  the  most  of  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland, 
Canada,  and  the  Floridas. 

We  supposed  that  all  the  English  manufacturing 
towns  would  clamor  in  our  favor  through  want 
of  employment:  Ireland  for  flaxseed,  and  British 
West  Indies  for  our  goods.  Six  months  corrects 
that:  Ireland  gets  cheaper  flaxseed,  the  West 
Indies  suffer  but  little. 

This  would  be  amusing  reading  if  it  were  not  the 
agonizing  cry  of  a  stricken  man.  How  different 
from  the  spread-eagle  declarations  of  later  years 
are  these  sentences?  "The  world  is  not  so  de 
pendent  on  us, — we  are  more  dependent  on  our 
neighbors  than  they  on  us. " 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  we  shall  be  excluded 
from  the  ancient  markets  of  Europe,  or  rivalled 
in  them.  It  was  the  interest  of  Great  Britain  to 
promote  our  commerce  in  fish,  lumber,  and  ship 
building.  Separate  and  free,  her  policy  will  re 
verse:  she  will  shut  her  West  India  ports;  sugar, 
coffee,  and  spices  will  be  high;  England  will  drive 
us  out  of  our  fisheries;  Sweden  and  Russia  can 
undersell  us  in  iron,  timber,  and  ships. 

Without  a  marine,  we  shall  be  a  target  for  insult 


Discouraged  187 

on  every  side.  Our  debt  is  immense.  Commerce 
will  be  heavily  taxed.  Congress  is  unfavorable 
to  commerce:  their  resolutions  in  almost  every 
instance  demonstrate  their  ignorance  of  the  prin 
ciples  and  effects  of  commerce.  We  have  magni 
fied  our  importance,  buoyed  by  wild  and  ground 
less  hopes. 

France  grows  indifferent  toward  us;  we  are  the 
cheapest  instrument  to  employ  one  half  of  the 
forces  of  Great  Britain.  At  this  critical  time 
we  can  make  better  terms  than  later. 

On  June  13,  Deane  wrote  Jeremiah  Wadsworth, 
insisting  that  Congress  has  an  exaggerated  view 
of  its  own  importance,  and  it  imagines  that  every 
European  nation,  except  Great  Britain,  is  in 
terested  to  have  us  independent,  though  told  to  the 
contrary  by  every  nation,  except  France. 

Living  in  the  atmosphere  of  Europe,  Deane  was 
affected  by  its  spirit,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  our 
independence  was  spoken  of  differently  from  the 
style  three  years  before.  Experience  shows  that 
we  are  warmly  attached  to  English  manners,  cus 
toms,  and  manufactures.  Every  American  who 
visits  France  is  impatient  to  go  to  England,  despite 
the  severe  laws. 

Nothing  short  of  peace  can  save  our  country  \ 
from  ruin.     The  terms  offered  by  Great  Britain 


1 88  Silas  Deane 

furnish  a  good  basis  for  a  treaty,  and  although 
unpopular  now,  will  not  be  so  later. 

In  closing,  Deane  assured  his  solid  old  friend 
that,  while  their  sentiments  might  differ,  he  must 
appreciate  his  motives. 

On  May  14,  Deane  wrote  General  S.  H.  Parsons, 
and  laid  stress  on  the  increasing  navy  of  England, 
with  thirty  new  ships  of  the  line  and  near  forty 
frigates  on  the  stocks,  plenty  of  money  coming  in 
from  the  new  loan,  and  the  repeal  of  the  obnoxious 
acts  that  brought  on  the  war. 

June  I,  he  wrote  Charles  Thomson,  secretary 
of  Congress,  emphasizing  the  fact  that  the  usual 
causes  for  revolution,  such  as  cruelty,  dungeons, 
and  scaffolds,  had  been  lacking  among  the  causes 
leading  up  to  the  war. 

On  May  16,  he  wrote  his  brother  Simeon  that  he 
had  not  talked  his  views  in  public  or  private  but 
he  could  not  disguise  his  fears  that  the  change  in 
the  temper  of  the  Americans  since  1775,  the  falling 
off  of  able  men  from  Congress,  the  heavy  expenses, 
and  the  refusal  of  European  nations  to  receive  our 
ambassadors,  were  doleful  prophecies  of  the  future. 

Of  the  temper  of  Congress,  Deane  could  speak 
out  of  his  own  experience;  its  caliber  had  not  im 
proved:  Franklin  and  John  Adams  were  abroad, 
Washington  was  in  the  army,  Dickinson  did  not 


Discouraged  189 

return  until  late  in  1779;  Mason,  Wythe,  Jefferson, 
Nicholas,  and  Pendleton  were  no  longer  members. 

Congress  had  reduced  the  value  of  currency  to 
zero;  its  prominent  members  caballed  against 
Washington  in  the  fearful  winter  of  1777-8;  it  did 
nothing  for  the  soldiers  in  Valley  Forge,  at  a  time 
when  Washington  said  that  America  was  on  the 
brink  of  destruction. 

Deane  doubts  whether  a  democracy  will  secure 
the  longed-for  blessings,  he  fears  that  wealth 
and  power  will  tend  toward  selfishness  and 
faction. 

He  imagines  all  sorts  of  disasters  in  case  we  fail, 
and  thinks  some  action  toward  an  honorable 
reconciliation  should  be  taken  before  the  country 
strikes  Scylla  or  Charybdis. 

Then  he  rehearses  the  story  of  his  own  woes, 
and,  speaking  of  his  misfortunes,  says:  "I  can 
neither  think  nor  write  without  dwelling  on  it.  It 
lies  down  with  me  at  night.  It  rises  with  me  in 
the  morning.  I  take  up  my  pen  and  resolve  not 
to  write  about  it,  but  before  a  page  is  written 
I  have  referred  to  it. " 

That  the  letter  was  strictly  personal,  and  not 
to  be  used  to  influence  others,  he  adds:  "I  hope 
this  letter  will  come  safe  to  your  hands ;  let  no  ex 
tracts  or  copies  be  made  of  it. " 


190  Silas  Deane 

A  letter  of  May  10,  to  James  Wilton  of  Philadel 
phia,  gives  nothing  we  have  not  already  noticed. 

On  May  20,  he  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Jesse  Root 
of  Philadelphia,  in  which  he  explained  his  change 
of  opinion:  noisy,  designing  men  had  risen  from 
the  lowest  order  to  places  of  authority;  the 
government  was  poorly  administered;  anarchy, 
licentiousness,  and  violence  prevail  even  in  Con 
gress;  faction,  cabal,  and  private  interests  too  often 
vanquish  reason,  patriotism,  and  justice. 

More  alarming  is  the  depravity  of  morals;  en 
couraged  by  the  laws  making  a  depreciated 
currency  a  legal  tender;  grasping  the  rewards  of 
dishonesty  offered  those  in  debt,  greater  injustice 
has  been  done  than  ever  before  among  any  people. 

To  Deane,  brooding  over  these  and  other 
sources  of  gloom,  there  emerged  two  propositions : 
there  is  no  probability  of  independency;  if  estab 
lished,  it  would  prove  a  curse.  America  grows 
weaker,  England  stronger,  France  more  wary; 
freedom  of  legislation  and  commerce  are  delusive 
dreams  under  anarchy  and  tumult  already  rife 
among  the  colonies. 

Hostilities  already  prevail  between  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania,  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania. 
England  has  often  interposed  to  save  the  civil 
and  religious  liberties  of  other  countries  against 


Discouraged  191 

France  and  Spain ;  it  will  be  better  to  have  England 
as  our  friend  than  either  of  these. 

Deane  uses  considerable  ingenuity  to  explain 
how  we  can  avoid  breaking  our  faith  with  France, 
by  reconciliation  with  England,  by  showing  that 
France  indicates  that  she  will  feel  at  liberty  to 
take  a  similar  course  if  we  are  not  successful. 

He  quotes  Franklin's  earlier  zeal  to  maintain 
the  union  with  the  British  Empire  and  says,  that 
since  the  causes  for  the  civil  war  have  ceased  by 
the  rescinding  of  obnoxious  laws,  we  would  do 
well  to  return  to  the  country  to  which  we  are 
bound  by  ties  of  religion,  laws,  manners,  and 
language. 

In  a  letter  to  Major  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  written 
May  20,  he  urges  him  to  let  no  copies  or  extracts 
be  made  of  it.  Had  he  taken  counsel  of  a  fear 
which  we  can  easily  read  between  the  lines,  and 
refrained  from  sending  it  and  its  companions, 
how  different  might  have  been  his  later  years ! 

On  June  10,  Deane  wrote  his  old  friend  Robert 
Morris  a  letter,  which  gives  nothing  we  have  not 
read  in  the  other  dreary  epistles. 

Four  days  later,  a  letter  to  Gen.  S.  H.  Parsons 
contains  sentences,  which  would  not  have  been 
written  could  Deane  have  looked  forward  to  the 
splendid  service  of  De  Grasse  at  Yorktown : 


192  Silas  Deane 

The  French  fleet  cannot  reach  you  till  August  or 
later,  and  little  can  be  expected  this  summer.  No 
thing  is  more  evident  than  that  the  present  object  of 
France  and  Spain  is  to  waste  the  forces  of  Britain  at 
the  expense  of  America.  If  we  gain  independence,  we 
shall  be  fortunate,  if  disputes  do  not  carry  us  into 
civil  war. 

Such  is  the  gloomy  view  of  a  discouraged  man, 
whose  credit  was  gone,  whose  integrity  was  im 
pugned,  whose  pocket  was  empty,  as  he  brooded 
month  after  month  and  year  after  year,  far  from 
his  country,  of  whose  fortunes  he  had  heard  such 
conflicting  reports,  for  whose  future  it  was  easy 
for  him  to  fear  the  worst. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Deane  had  any  corre 
spondence  with  any  officers  of  the  British  Govern 
ment.  He  wrote  those  letters  to  personal  friends 
in  America,  unburdening  his  heart,  which  had 
grown  weary  with  the  weight  of  injustice,  dis 
grace  and  poverty.  In  two  at  least  of  the  letters, 
he  charged  the  readers  to  allow  no  copies  to  be 
made  of  them. 

It  is  the  cry  of  a  desponding  man,  not  of  a 
traitor.  We  may  accuse  him  of  lack  of  faith  in 
his  country,  weakness,  and  loss  of  courage;  we 
may  say  that  his  republicanism  weakened,  but 
we  cannot  justly  charge  him  with  treason. 


CHAPTER  XII 

DEANE  AN  EXILE  IN  HOLLAND 

'T'HE  experiences  of  Deane  in  the  autumn  of  1781 
were  discouraging  in  the  extreme.  Very  dif- 
erent  were  the  fortunes  of  America  with  Wash 
ington,  Lafayette,  Rochambeau,  and  De  Grasse 
gathering  their  forces  to  crush  Cornwallis,  and  close 
the  war.  On  September  13,  the  day  before  Wash 
ington  arrived  at  Yorktown  to  take  command  of 
the  armies  of  France  and  America,  Deane  wrote 
his  brother  Barnabas,  as  was  mentioned  earlier, 
that  he  was  ill  with  fever  and  depression,  but  he 
was  planning  soon  to  meet  his  son  in  Ghent,  where 
he  intended  to  pass  the  autumn. 

My  patience  is  exhausted  [he  writes]  and  my  affairs 
ruined  by  the  unexampled  conduct  of  Congress  who 
have  detained  me  here — it  is  now  more  than  a  year — 
waiting  for  the  appointment  of  an  auditor  to  settle 
my  accounts,  which,  in  reality,  I  believe  they  never 
wish,  or  desire  to  have  settled. 

On  September  19,  at  the  time  when  Washington 
with  Rochambeau,   Chastellux,   and  Knox  were 
conferring  with  De  Grasse  on  his  flagship   Ville 
13  193 


194  Silas  Deane 

de  Paris,  concerning  the  coming  battle,  Deane 
was  writing  his  friend  James  Wilson  of  the  failure 
of  his  venture  with  masts  and  land  sales. 

Its  being  known  [he  writes]  that  a  merchant  has 
made,  or  is  about  to  make,  any  considerable  ven 
ture  to  America  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  hurt  his  credit 
in  France.  For  myself  almost  everything  I  depended 
upon  when  I  left  America  has  failed.  I  built  great 
hopes  on  the  mast  contracts  and  had  good  right  to  do 
so  at  the  time.  I  was  persuaded  that  something 
might  be  done  with  lands.  I  had  confidence  that 
Congress,  after  suffering  me  to  be  calumniated  as  a 
public  defaulter,  and  in  effect  treating  me  as  such 
themselves,  would  certainly  have  an  auditor  ap 
pointed;  I  was  deceived  also  in  this. 

On   September   26,    Deane  wrote   his  brother 
Barnabas  a  depressing  letter. 

There  is  no  talk  of  peace  at  present;  you  will  say 
I  am  a  Cassandra,  prophesying  evil  only.  I  cannot 
help  it,  our  credit  is  so  low  no  goods  can  be  bought 
without  cash  on  unquestioned  European  security. 
I  know  no  merchant  in  France  who  has  not  lost  by 
America,  and  too  many  are  totally  ruined.  I  confess 
the  gloomy  prospect  has  made  me  exceedingly  un 
happy,  and  makes  me  fear  that  public,  as  well  as 
private,  tranquillity  will  be  unknown  in  our  country 
during  our  lives. 

On  September   26,  he  wrote  John  Jay  com 
plaining  of  the  newspapers  for  coupling  him  with 


Exile  in  Holland  195 

Duane  and  Arnold,  and  thinks  "licentiousness  in 
stigmatizing  men  in  public  trust  with  the  vilest 
and  most  abusive  epithets  a  fatal  symptom  of 
universal  anarchy,  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the 
monarchy  at  the  door. " 

On  October  20,  he  wrote  from  Ghent  to  Ben 
jamin  Tallmadge  of  his  fear  that  at  the  close  of  the 
war  America  will  feel  the  despotic  weight  of  the 
French  army  which  will  then  number  thirty 
thousand  veterans. 

On  October  21,  Deane  wrote  his  brother  that  he 
feared  that  an  earlier  letter  had  been  intercepted ; 
he  had  learned  that  it  and  other  letters  had  been 
published  in  New  York.  It  was  disagreeable  to 
have  them  come  out,  but  he  was  not  sorry  to  have 
all  America  informed  of  his  sentiments,  and  of  the 
grounds  on  which  they  were  founded.  He  adds, 
' '  I  have  seen  nothing  to  alter  my  way  of  thinking. ' ' 
This  is  plucky,  though  a  little  reckless,  but  there 
is  no  symptom  here  of  anything  traitorous. 

On  October  21,  he  wrote  Jonathan  Trumbull: 
"No  nation  ever  preserved  its  liberty  after  ad 
mitting  a  superior  army  of  foreign  mercenaries 
to  fight  its  battles.  The  name  of  Independent 
States  will  not  counterbalance  the  miseries  and 
distresses  of  present  and  future  burdens. " 

On  November  I,  R.  R.  Livingston  wrote  John 


196  Silas  Deane 

Jay  from  Philadelphia:  "As  I  know  the  con 
fidence  you  once  had  in  Deane  I  must  caution  you 
against  having  any  communication  with  him; 
some  letters,  said  to  be  his,  have  been  furnished 
by  Rivington,  which,  being  compared  with  others 
received  here,  have  marks  of  authenticity. " 

A  little  later,  Jeremiah  Wadsworth  wrote 
Deane  of  the  gloomy  picture  his  letters  presented 
two  days  before  in  Rivington's  New  York  Royal 
Gazette  ;  he  said  he  had  nothing  to  reply  to  all 
these  assertions  as  they  were  founded  on  false 
information,  despondency,  and  mistakes. 

Your  old  enemies  pronounce  you  an  apostate,  and 
boldly  assert  that  you  are  paid  by  Great  Britain,  and 
that  before  this  you  are  in  England.  Your  friends, 
whose  distress  is  extreme  from  your  letters,  hope  that 
the  cold  hand  of  despair,  which  was  on  you,  caused 
you  to  see  everything  with  a  jaundiced  eye.  Before 
you  receive  this,  I  will  hope  that  you  have  recovered 
your  spirits  and  obtained  a  better  knowledge  of  our 
affairs,  and  have  retracted  your  mistaken  opinions. 

On  November  1 1 ,  Barnabas  Deane,  in  a  letter  to 
Jacob  Sebor,  refers  to  the  "intercepted  letters,'* 
and  says  Deane's  enemies  are  freely  coupling  his 
name  with  Arnold's,  adding,  "I  am  more  sur- 
v  prised  at  his  imprudence  at  writing  so  freely  than 
at  any  other  action  of  his  life.  He  has  now  given 


Exile  in  Holland  197 

his  enemies  just  the  opportunity  they  wanted  to 
ruin  him. " 

The  same  month,  Deane  wrote  Edward  Ban 
croft  a  letter  full  of  anxiety  and  distress  over 
the  ' '  intercepted  letters. ' ' 

I  never  could  imagine  [he  says]  that  my  attach 
ment  to  the  true  interests  of  my  country  could  be 
questioned.  Still,  things  in  America  would  be  hap 
pier  and  we  would  enjoy  greater  liberties,  subject  to 
England.  Fully  convinced  of  this,  my  natural  opin 
ions  and  temper  led  me  to  say  so  to  many  Americans, 
who  set  themselves  to  misreport  or  exaggerate  every 
expression  of  mine,  and  represent  me  as  an  enemy  of 
my  country  and  a  partisan  of  British  tyranny. 

He  refers  to  the  British  taking  important  letters 
from  a  vessel. 

This  [he  says]  gives  me  the  greatest  uneasiness 
lest  mine  should  be  among  them ;  for,  though  I  neither 
expected  nor  required  that  my  friends  should  keep 
their  contents  secret  from  our  countrymen  in  public 
characters,  yet  should  they  be  communicated  to  them 
through  the  English  papers  from  New  York,  such  a 
circumstance  would  fill  the  utmost  measure  of  my 
misfortune.  I  can  easily  foresee  the  consequences; 
but  should  they  prove  ten  times  worse  than  I  at 
present  imagine,  apprehensive  as  I  naturally  am, 
they  will  have  no  effect  on  me  with  regard  to  my 
attachment  to  my  country  and  its  liberties. 

To  be  obnoxious  to  that  country  which  I  once 
gloried  in  as  the  common  parent  of  myself  and  fellow- 


198  Silas  Deane 

citizens,  for  having  been  among  the  first  to  resist 
usurpation,  and  at  the  same  time  to  become  suspected 
where  I  have  experienced  so  much  politeness  and 
hospitality,  and  to  be  represented  in  my  own  country 
as  its  enemy,  is  too  much. 

One  sees  here  the  agony  of  a  man  who  is  ad 
vancing  still  further  into  misery.  He  adds: 
"I  will  neither  anticipate  misfortune  nor  sink 
under  it,  while  health  and  spirits  remain  with  me, 
but  for  the  past  ten  days  both  have  threatened 
to  leave  me. " 

What  sleepless  nights,  what  vain  regrets,  what 
restless  tossings,  what  burdened  hours  are  here 
suggested!  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  rigid 
economy  he  is  obliged  to  practise. 

This  is  the  place  to  introduce  an  account  of  an 
interview  which  Elkanah  Watson  had  with  Deane 
in  November,  1781.  Watson  says: 

On  my  return  from  Brussels  I  called  on  the  once 
celebrated  Silas  Deane  at  Ghent.  I  found  him  a 
voluntary  exile,  misanthropic  in  his  feelings,  intent  on 
getting  money,  and  deadly  hostile  to  his  native  land. 
I  felt  constrained  on  my  return  to  Paris  to  announce 
to  Franklin  my  conviction  that  Deane  must  be  re 
garded  an  enemy  alike  to  France  and  America.  He 
observed  to  me  that  similar  representations  had 
reached  him,  but  he  was  unwilling  to  admit  their 
truth. 


Exile  in  Holland  199 

Later,  Watson  revised  this  opinion,  saying, 
"Such  at  the  time  were  my  impressions  and  the 
opinions  I  formed  of  Deane,  I  owe  it  to  truth  and 
justice  to  record  his  vindication  from  these  stric 
tures  by  a  potent  pen,  that  of  John  Trumbull,  the 
brilliant  author  of  Me  Fin  gal,  to  whose  criticism 
I  submitted  the  compilation  of  my  manuscript. " 
He  expressed  the  following  views  in  a  letter  dated 
January,  1823: 

Silas  Deane  [you  say]  among  other  things  was  a 
deadly  enemy  of  his  native  land,  but  ambition,  not 
avarice,  was  his  ruling  passion.  In  his  early  trans 
actions  at  the  Court  of  France,  as  the  political  and 
commercial  agent  of  Congress,  he  rendered  important 
service  to  his  country,  but,  exceeding  his  powers,  he 
made  his  recall  necessary.  Exasperated  by  the  cool 
reception,  and  the  delay  in  settling  the  account,  he 
became  engaged  in  a  controversy  with  many  of  the 
most  influential  members  of  Congress.  Defeated  in 
many  of  his  purposes,  he  repaired  again  to  France, 
where  he  found  his  political  reputation  lost  with  the 
loss  of  his  official  character.  The  publication  of 
letters  charging  the  French  Court  with  intrigue  and 
duplicity  made  him  obnoxious  there,  and  drove  him  in 
to  voluntary  exile.  He  lived  in  the  Netherlands  dis 
satisfied,  exasperated,  and  reduced  almost  to  penury. 
Thus  forced  into  an  unnatural  and  friendless  resi 
dence  in  foreign  countries,  he  gave  himself  up  to  rage, 
resentment,  and  actual  despair,  and  vented  his  passion 
in  execrations  against  France,  America,  and  mankind. 


200  Silas  Deane 

In  this  condition  you  found  him.  He  considered 
himself  as  a  man,  not  only  abused  and  ill  requited  for 
his  important  services,  but  denied  those  pecuniary 
emoluments  which  had  been  promised  him  for  his 
agency  in  Europe. 

This  bears  the  marks  of  candor  and  good 
judgment ;  neither  Watson  nor  Trumbull  accepted 
as  true,  reports,  flying  through  the  air,  that  Deane 
was  in  the  pay  of  the  British  Ministry. 

There  is  a  note  by  Lord  North  bearing  upon 
this  matter,  dated  March  3,  1781,  in  which  he 
says:  "I  think  Deane  should  have  three  thousand 
pounds,  in  goods  for  America.  The  giving  him 
particular  instructions  would  be  liable  to  much 
hazard,  but  his  bringing  any  of  the  provinces  to 
offer  to  return  to  their  allegiance  on  the  former 
foot  would  be  much  better  than  by  joint  coopera 
tion  through  Congress." 

There  is  nothing  in  this  to  incriminate  Deane. 
There  was  a  fund  upon  which  ministers  could  draw 
for  purposes  of  bribery,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that 
Deane  received  a  shilling.  All  that  can  be  proved 
from  the  above  letter  is  the  fact  that  Deane's  un- 
happiness  was  known  to  Lord  North,  who  would 
naturally  regard  him  as  possibly  an  easy  mark. 

We  have  a  letter  of  King  George  of  the  date, 
August  7,  1781,  which  is  as  follows : 


Exile  in  Holland  201 

The  letter  Lord  North  has  wrote  to  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  on  the  subject  of  the  intercepted  letters  from 
Deane,  he  is  transmitting  to  him,  is  very  proper,  and 
is  the  most  likely  means  of  rendering  them  of  utility. 
I  own  I  think  them  too  strong  in  our  favor  to  bear 
the  appearance  of  his  spontaneous  opinion,  but  that,  if 
suspected  to  be  authentic,  they  will  see  that  they  have 
by  concert  fallen  into  our  hands.  The  means  Deane 
should  have  taken  as  most  conducive  to  the  object  he 
seems  now  to  favor  would  have  been,  first,  to  have 
shown  that  the  hands  of  the  French  are  too  full  to  be 
able  to  give  solid  assistance  to  America,  and  to  have 
pointed  out  the  ruin  that  must  attend  the  further 
continuance  of  the  war. 

So  far  as  this  shows  anything  it  shows  that 
Deane  had  not  endeavored  in  any  deliberate,  or  . 
in  any  passionate  or  ill-considered  way,  to  play 
into  the  hands  of  the  English  and  invite  bribes 
from  the  British  Ministry. 

Charles  Isham  says  that  there  is  no  convincing 
evidence  that  Deane  was  in  the  pay  of  the  Eng 
lish,  or  was  promised  pay,  when  he  wrote  the 
"intercepted  letters."  So  extreme  was  his  de 
spondency,  and  so  bitter  was  his  language  after  he 
returned  to  Paris  that  he  was  regarded  by  the 
English  as  a  person  who  might  serve  the  British 
interests.  Possibly  some  English  agent  suggested 
to  him  that  a  commercial  partnership  would  be 
available  by  him  without  intimation  of  a  bribe, 


202  Silas  Deane 

but  the  extravagance  with  which  Deane  overshot 
the  mark,  as  King  George  himself  says,  is  the 
reverse  of  the  spirit  of  a  man  bidding  for  English 
gold.  Deane  sought  no  bribes;  his  letters  are  the 
outflow  of  keen  despair,  and  contain  the  con 
victions  of  a  mind  distorted  by  mistakes,  dis 
couragements,  and  mania. 

When  Bancroft  learned  of  their  publication,  he 
wrote  back  in  terms  of  regret,  and  complete 
ignorance  that  his  friend  was  in  the  pay  of  the 
British  Government.  Had  Deane  been  treason 
able,  Bancroft  was  the  most  natural  channel  of 
communication  with  the  English,  and  he  could 
best  have  arranged  the  details.  The  business 
offered  by  Lord  North  came  to  nothing.  There  is 
an  allusion  of  the  king  regarding  Deane' s  sin 
cerity,  to  be  interpreted  in  favor %of  his  integrity, 
which  is  as  follows:  "I  quite  agree  with  Lord 
North  that  the  retreat  of  Mr.  Deane  to  Ghent 
shows  that  his  conduct  is  sincere. "  Deane  never 
incriminated  himself  as  a  bribe-taker  with  his 
relatives  or  intimates. 

The  " intercepted  letters"  offered  a  rich  field 
to  Tom  Paine  and  other  bitter  enemies.  Paine 
quotes  with  relish  the  remark  of  a  man  who  pre 
tended  to  be  loyal  to  Deane,  "  My  old  friend  Duer 
says,  'Deane  is  a  damned  artful  rascal.'  " 


Exile  in  Holland  203 

Benjamin  Tallmadge  wrote  Deane,  December 
28,  1781,  that  he  was  often  spoken  of  as  a  traitor, 
a  disappointed  statesman,  laboring  under  the  just 
censures  of  his  country,  till  the  malice  of  thwarted 
pride  and  ambition  drove  him  to  the  dreadful  step. 

Meanwhile  Deane  was  living  in  his  cheap  room 
with  his  son,  taking  meals  at  a  plain  boarding 
house.  On  December  21,  he  writes  Frederick 
Grand  that  he  was  very  ill.  Three  days  later, 
he  writes  that  he  has  a  dry  cough  and  can  sleep 
but  little.  He  hears  from  Barclay,  whom  Con 
gress  appointed  to  examine  his  accounts,  that  he 
has  no  orders  to  close  them. 

On  March  4,  1782,  Franklin  wrote  Livingston, 
that  there  was  no  doubt  about  the  genuineness  of 
the  1 1  intercepted  letters. ' '  He  says : 

Deane's  conversation,  since  his  return  from  America, 
has  gone  gradually  more  and  more  into  that  style, 
and  at  length  he  came  to  an  open  vindication  of 
Arnold's  conduct.  He  resides  at  Ghent,  distressed 
both  in  mind  and  circumstances ;  he  raves,  and  | 
writes  abundantly,  and  I  imagine  that  it  will  end  in 
his  going  over  to  join  his  friend  Arnold  in  England. 
I  had  an  exceedingly  good  opinion  of  him  when  he 
acted  with  me,  and  I  believe  that  he  was  sincere 
and  hearty  in  our  cause ;  but  he  is  changed,  and  his 
character  ruined  in  his  own  country  and  in  this, 
so  I  see  no  other  but  England  to  which  he  can  now 
retire. 


204  Silas  Deane 

He  did  not  go  to  England  for  a  year,  and 
wise  as  the  great  philosopher  was,  for  once  he 
was  mistaken;  moreover,  Franklin's  reference  to 
Deane's  "friend  Arnold"  was  undeserved,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  next  chapter.  . 

On  March  30,  1782,  Franklin  wrote  Morris  from 
Paris:  "Our  former  friend,  Deane,  has  lost  him 
self  entirely,  and  he  and  his  letters  are  universally 
condemned.  He  cannot  well  return  hither,  and  I 
think  hardly  to  America.  I  see  no  place  for  him 
but  England.  He  continues,  however,  to  sit 
croaking  at  Ghent,  chagrined,  discontented,  and 
dispirited." 

A  letter  from  Deane  to  Franklin,  bearing  the 
date  of  May  13,  1782,  can  scarcely  be  called  a 
"croaking  letter"  though  it  is  discouraging  and 
passionate.  After  thanking  Franklin  for  urging 
Congress  to  settle  his  accounts,  he  sets  forth  his 
opinion  that  an  independent  democracy  in  alli 
ance  with  the  House  of  Bourbon  would  conduce  less 
to  peace  and  happiness  than  to  be  under  the 
British  constitution  with  abuses  reformed.  He 
adds: 

It  is  cruel  and  unjust  in  us  to  treat  each  other  as 
enemies  on  this  account.  I  have  not  betrayed  any 
public  trust,  I  have  freely  condemned  the  conduct  of 
Arnold,  as  freely  as  I  from  the  first  condemned  that  of 


Exile  in  Holland  205 

those  violent  demagogues,  who  improved  every 
circumstance  and  accident  of  his  life  to  push  him  into 
desperate  measures.  My  case,  therefore,  in  every 
point  of  view,  differs  from  his;  I  have  neither  corre 
spondence  nor  interest,  nor  the  prospect  of  any  in 
Great  Britain.  The  small  remainder  of  my  fortune, 
the  most  of  my  friends  and  family,  and  all  my  future 
hopes  and  prospects  are  in  America.  I  have  therefore 
every  motive  to  make  me  wish  for  the  liberty  and 
happiness  of  my  country,  and  I  can  with  great  sin 
cerity  declare,  that  if  America,  on  experiment,  shall 
find  herself  happier  and  more  free  under  the  present 
system  than  she  ever  was  or  could  expect  to  be  under 
the  other,  however  modified  or  reformed,  I  shall  re 
joice  to  find  I  have  judged  erroneously,  and  that  I 
have  both  written  and  spoken  at  least  imprudently  on 
the  subject. 

A  letter  from  Beaumarchais  to  Morris  written 
June  3,  1782,  shows  how  cordial  was  his  confi 
dence  in  Deane : 

I  address  to  you  [he  says]  a  faithful  abstract  of 
my  accounts  as  they  have  been  settled  by  Mr.  Deane 
with  whom  alone,  on  behalf  of  the  General  Congress,  I 
treated.  His  misfortunes,  the  malice  with  which  his 
character,  naturally  mild  and  uniform,  has  been 
aspersed,  and  the  complaints  which  I  have  heard  in 
this  country  against  certain  of  his  writings,  have  not 
changed  the  opinion  I  formed  of  him.  I  will  always 
do  him  the  justice  to  say  that  he  is  one  of  those  men 
who  have  contributed  most  to  the  alliance  of  France 
with  the  United  States.  I  will  even  add  that  his 


206  Silas  Deane 

laudable  endeavors  in  the  most  difficult  times 
merited  perhaps  another  recommendation.  I  see 
there  are  intrigues  among  Republicans  as  well  as 
in  the  courts  of  kings.  This  digression,  a  compas 
sionate  feeling  for  a  man  worthy  of  a  better  lot, 
forces  from  me,  in  writing  to  you,  sir,  who  have  loved 
him  as  I  do. 

The  abuse  to  which  Deane  was  exposed  in  the 
newspapers  is  suggested  by  a  certificate  of  Frank 
lin  published  about  this  time  as  follows : 

Since  certain  paragraphs  in  English  papers  impute 
that  Silas  Deane  had  sometime  after  his  first  arrival 
in  France  purchased  in  that  kingdom  thirty  thousand 
muskets,  and  that  he  gave  three  livres  for  each,  being 
old,  condemned  arms ;  that  he  had  them  cleaned  and 
vamped  up  at  a  cost  of  three  livres  more;  and  that 
for  each  of  these  he  charged  and  received  a  louis 
d'or,  and  that  he  also  committed  similar  frauds 
in  the  purchase  of  other  articles  for  the  use  of  his 
country,  I  think  it  my  duty,  in  compliance  with  his 
request,  to  certify  and  declare  that  the  paragraph 
in  question,  according  to  my  best  knowledge  and 
belief,  is  entirely  false,  and  that  I  have  never  known 
or  suspected  any  cause  to  charge  said  Silas  Deane 
with  any  want  of  probity  in  any  purchase  or  any 
bargain  whatsoever. 

How  sweeping  and  reckless  were  the  charges 
appears  from  a  quotation  from  a  letter  from 
William  Lee  to  Samuel  Thorpe,  dated  January 
17,  1783,  as  follows:  "A  correspondent  has  seen 


Exile  in  Holland  207 

the  publication  in  America  in  which  Franklin  is 
publicly  charged  as  deep  in  the  mire  as  Deane. " 

The  exile  wrote  John  Jay,  Feburary  10,  1782,  of 
his  straitened  circumstances,  his  being  forced  to 
contract  debts  for  his  support,  which  would  not 
have  been  necessary  could  he  have  visited  London, 
from  which  he  was  debarred  through  fear  of 
creating  prejudice;  that  he  had  been  struggling  to 
keep  himself  above  the  extremes  of  personal  want 
and  indigence;  that  he  had  been  calumniated  in 
America  as  a  defaulter,  grown  rich  out  of  pub 
lic  moneys,  and  this  by  those  who  had  it  at  all 
times  in  their  power  to  convict,  and  to  make  a 
public  example  of  him  had  they  found  him  guilty 
on  a  trial,  to  which  he  presented  himself  and  for 
which  he  solicited;  that  his  accounts  had  been 
before  Congress  for  a  year;  and  a  year  and  a 
half  before,  when  Barclay,  who  had  been  appointed 
auditor,  wrote  for  instructions,  he  was  told  he  was 
not  to  have  any  concern  about  the  affair.  In  the 
words  of  Deane : 


If  my  enemies  believed  one  word  of  what  they  as 
serted  and  professed  against  me  for  five  years  past  in 
America,  would  they  hesitate  one  moment  to  bring 
me  to  trial?  If  Congress  thought  there  were  any 
grounds  for  the  charges,  would  they  be  so  unjust  to 
their  constituents  as  to  refuse  all  examination? 


208  Silas  Deane 

Deane's  exile  is  made  more  bitter  by  the  fact 
that  his  letters  are  intercepted;  his  brother  had 
not  heard  from  him  for  over  a  year,  though  many 
letters  had  been  written,  and  he  knew  they  reached 
America.  He  wrote  Barnabas  February  10,  1783: 

Unhappily  my  letters,  as  well  as  every  thing"else  be 
longing  to  me,  have  been  regarded  as  free  plunder  by 
both  parties.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  go  to  London  in  a 
few  days,  and  shall  recover  sufficient  out  of  an  old 
balance  due  me  to  answer  my  more  pressing  demands. 

He  had  stayed  away  from  London  to  avoid 
giving  further  advantage  to  his  enemies.  He 
urges  his  brother  to  sell  all  his  property,  real  and 
personal,  and  remit  the  proceeds  to  him;  he 
expresses  his  willingness  to  have  his  accounts 
examined  and  decided  upon  by  any  disinterested 
merchants  or  bankers  in  Paris,  and  says  that  the 
balance  due  him  is  sixty  thousand  dollars. 

On  February  10,  1783,  he  wrote  Edward  Ban- 
croft  that  he  would  like  to  visit  Paris,  if  he  were 
not  liable  to  meet  disagreeable  words  or  actions, 
of  which  he  had  had  sufficient.  As  he  thinks  of  the 
good  friends  in  Paris  he  longs  to  see,  his  mind  goes 
back  two  years,  to  the  time  when  he  wrote  the 
fatal  letters,  and  he  says : 

I  wrote  freely,  and  I  confess  unguardedly,  my 
sentiments  on  our  affairs  at  a  very  gloomy  period. 


Exile  in  Holland  209 

It  is  no  way  extraordinary  that  my  mind  should  be 
affected  at  the  dangerous  situation  in  which  I  then 
viewed  everything  dear  to  me  to  be  in,  nor  that  my 
pen  should  express  the  feelings  of  my  heart,  nor  that 
I  did  not  foresee  events  then  unexpected  by  every 
one;  but  an  error  in  judgment  is  not  a  crime.  Could 
the  public  view  the  letters  of  men  of  high  station  at 
that  time  to  their  friends  on  both  sides  of  the  water, 
mine  would  not  appear  to  be  the  only  desponding  or 
criminal  ones. 

On  February  22,  Jay  wrote  Deane  from  Paris 
a  letter  which  must  have  wrung  the  heart  of  the 
exile.  "I  was  your  friend,  and  should  still  have 
been  so, "  he  said,  "had  you  not  advised  America 
to  desert  that  independence  which  they  had 
pledged  each  other  their  lives,  fortunes,  and 
sacred  honor  to  support." 

A  little  solace  mingles  in  the  bitter  cup,  as  he 
says:  "The  charges  against  you  of  peculation 
undoubtedly  called  for  strict  and  speedy  in 
quiry;  but  I  expected  that  you  would  make  a 
satisfactory  defense  against  them — I  hope  so  still." 
Speaking  of  his  desire  to  visit  England,  he  says: 
"To  my  knowledge  you  are  suspected  of  being 
in  British  interests.  ...  As  circumstances  press 
your  going,  probably  you  will  venture;  let  me 
advise  you  to  be  prudent  and  cautious  what  com 
pany  you  keep,  and  what  conversations  you  hold 
14 


210  Silas  Deane 

in  that  country."  This  was  good  counsel  for  a 
man  so  inclined  to  talk  as  Deane  was.  Then  fol 
lows  what  we  may  regard  as  a  fairly  correct  ex 
planation  of  Deane's  unfortunate  "intercepted 
letters." 

I  write  thus  plainly  and  fully,  because  I  still  indulge 
the  idea  that  your  head  may  have  been  more  to  blame 
than  your  heart,  and  that  in  some  melancholy  despond 
ent  hour  the  disorder  of  your  nerves  affected  your 
opinions  and  your  pen.  God  grant  this  may  have 
proved  to  have  been  the  case,  and  that  I  may  yet  have 
reason  to  resume  my  former  opinion,  that  you  were  a 
valuable,  a  virtuous,  and  a  patriotic  man. 

Deane  himself  came  to  regard  this  reasoning  of 
his  friend  Jay  as  a  true  explanation  of  his  folly. 
Writing  Feburary  28,  to  M.  LeRay  Chaumont, 
he  says  he  hopes  the  peace 

will  settle  people's  minds,  and  that  an  individual  will 
not  be  regarded  as  an  enemy,  because  in  an  hour  of 
despondency  and  apprehension  for  his  country,  he 
imprudently  attempted  to  warn  his  countrymen  of 
what  he  thought  their  danger. 

It  is  true  I  wrote  many  letters  to  America  on  what 
appeared  at  the  time  the  dangerous  and  critical 
situation  of  my  country;  it  is  true  I  wrote  them  to 
my  private  friends  for  their  information ;  it  is  equally 
true  that  some  of  those  letters  were  basely  betrayed 
and  that  others  were  intercepted  and  published  in  New 
York,  not  to  serve  Great  Britain  so  much  as  to  injure 


Exile  in  Holland  211 

me,  and  for  that  purpose  some  of  them  were  altered 
in  many  parts,  and  the  whole  placed  in  the  most 
unfavorable  light. 

Though  I  am  ready  to  acknowledge  that  I  was  mis 
informed  and  misled  in  some,  and  even  in  many  things, 
and  that  I  was  imprudent  to  write  or  speak  at  all  on 
the  subject,  yet  as  a  free  citizen  I  had  a  free  right  to 
do  both. 

On  February  28,  Deane  replied  to  Jay's  pointed 
but  friendly  counsel,  explaining  the  gloom  in  which 
he  wrote  the  "intercepted  letters, "  adding : 

Unfortunately  I  am  not  blessed  with  that  gay  and 
sanguine  disposition  which  leadeth  the  happy  posses 
sor  of  it  to  hope  and  to  believe  all  things  whatsoever 
they  wish  for.  In  such  a  situation,  and  with  such 
feelings,  it  was  not  possible  for  me,  if  I  wrote  or  spoke 
at  all,  not  to  express  some  sentiments  tinctured  by  the 
gloom  before  me.  I  am  not  about  to  justify  the  part 
I  took ;  nay,  I  confess  that  when  I  bring  it  to  the  bar 
of  prudence  I  am  among  the  first  to  condemn  it ;  but 
I  cannot  bring  myself  to  regard  an  imprudent  and  a 
criminal  action  as  the  same.  I  do  not  either  justify 
or  wholly  excuse  my  conduct;  but  I  must  be  that 
traitor  to  myself,  which  God  knows  I  never  was  to  my 
country,  should  I  subscribe  to  that  condemnation  so 
outrageously  pressed  on  me  by  many  of  my  country 
men.  When  I  am  charged  with  being  in  the  British 
interests,  it  is  implied  and  generally  understood  as 
being  in  British  pay,  but  can  anything  give  a  stronger 
contradiction  to  this  than  the  part  I  have  acted  both 
before  and  since  writing  those  letters,  and  the  dis- 


212  Silas  Deane 

tressed   situation  in   which    I   have  lingered   out   a 
wretched  and  obscure  exile  in  this  place? 

For  almost  eighteen  months  past  I  have  lived  in 
lodgings  barely  decent,  without  a  servant,  and  dined 
at  an  ordinary,  a  style  of  living  which  you  well  know 
I  am  neither  accustomed  nor  inclined  to,  and  to  which 
necessity  alone  could  ever  reduce  me — a  hard  ne 
cessity  indeed — for  without  this  rigid  economy  I  must, 
with  an  only  son,  of  whom  I  have  the  right  to  promise 
quite  the  reverse,  have  been  reduced  to  the  extremes 
of  want;  and  what  has  embittered  even  this  scanty 
subsistence  (as  if  I  had  not  only  a  sufficient  portion 
of  gall  in  my  cup) ,  I  have  owed  the  greatest  part  of  it 
to  a  friend  in  Paris,  who  generously  lent  me  money, 
still  unpaid.  I  was  never  in  England,  neither  have  I 
intimate  or  stated  correspondents  in  that  country;  I 
am  personally  unknown  to  any  one,  both  of  the  old 
and  the  present  administration,  except  a  casual  ac 
quaintance  with  Lord  Shelburne,  Mr.  Townsend,  and 
Mr.  Fox  in  1776,  at  a  dinner  at  a  friend's  house  in 
Paris,  may  be  called  a  personal  acquaintance. 

Referring  to  Jay's  statement  that  the  charges 
of  peculation  called  for  strict  and  speedy  inquiry, 
Deane  said  that  for  three  years  he  had  solicited 
an  investigation;  that,  while  it  was  not  in  his 
power  to  force  Congress  to  action,  it  had  been  in 
their  power  to  ruin  him  by  blasting  his  character 
with  their  vague  and  general  insinuations,  and 
denying  him  the  only  possible  means  to  justify 
himself  to  them  and  before  the  world.  He  quotes 


Exile  in  Holland  213 

Franklin's  assertion  of  two  months  before  that  he 
never  had  the  least  cause  to  suspect  his  fidelity 
in  money  transactions  for  the  public. 

Referring  to  the  possible  alternative  of  pub 
lishing  the  state  of  the  case  in  the  papers,  he  says 
that  this  would  have  only  thrown  him  back  on  the 
tempestuous  ocean  of  newspaper  litigation  and 
abuse  into  which  he  once  suffered  himself  to  be 
driven,  and  in  which  he  had  been  shipwrecked. 
"The  bare  mention  of  my  name,"  he  says,  "in 
a  newspaper  was,  as  I  know  and  have  lately  ex 
perienced,  sufficient  to  set  scribblers  to  work  to 
abuse  me;  and  the  torments  of  a  contest  of  this 
kind  are  like  the  torments  of  hell,  endless,  and  to 
increase  them  the  sufferer  must  ever  be  in  bad  com 
pany.  "  With  returning  peace  and  tranquillity  he 
hopes  for  justice;  he  does  not  look  for  public 
office,  but  only  hopes  to  wipe  off  the  aspersion  cast 
on  his  character,  and  to  convince  the  world  that 
he  merits  in  some  degree  the  former  opinion  his 
friends  held  of  him. 

So  runs  the  dreary  story  of  Deane's  exile  in 
Ghent,  where  for  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  he  lived 
in  poverty,  in  cheap  lodgings,  taking  his  meals  at 
a  public  eating-house.  The  presence  of  his  son 
was  company  for  him,  if  not  a  comfort,  as  the 
youth's  health  was  not  strong,  and  the  father 


214  Silas  Deane 

felt  keenly  the  shadow  which  his  misfortunes  cast 
upon  his  boy. 

He  had  abundant  time  to  review  the  whole 
situation,  and  eat  his  heart  out  with  vain  regret 
over  his  imprudence  in  allowing  his  despondency 
to  direct  his  pen,  and  thus  put  into  the  hands  of 
his  enemies  materials  for  completing  his  downfall. 
It  must  have  been  a  relief  to  embark  for  London, 
for  he  cherished  the  hope  which  proved  to  be  vain, 
of  securing  a  balance  due  him  there. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ISOLATION,  POVERTY,  AND  MISERY  IN  ENGLAND 

HPHE  first  token  of  Deane's  presence  in  England 
is  in  a  letter  written  April  i,  1783,  to  his 
brother  Simeon,  in  which  he  said  that  after  being 
delayed  by  illness  in  Ghent,  he  had  come  to 
London,  where  he  purposed  to  stay  only  long 
enough  to  settle  an  old  account  and  send  to 
America  his  son,  who  was  then  ill  with  a  return 
of  the  disorder  which  had  affected  him  in  his  in 
fancy.  He  says:  "It  is  a  gloomy  reflection  to 
think  that  the  son  may  be  as  unfortunate  in 
his  health  as  the  father  in  his  fortunes;  but  I 
submit,  and  I  flatter  myself  with  some  degree  of 
philosophic  fortitude,  to  ills  which  I  can  neither 
prevent  nor  avoid.*' 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  see  that  Deane  did  some 
thing  besides  brood  over  his  misfortunes.    He  ad-  ' 
vises  the  lawmakers  of  Connecticut  to  use  their  , 
influence  to  liquidate  and  apportion  the  public  ' 
debt  without  loss  of  time,  and  let  each  state  take 
its  portion  and  manage  its  own  revenue. 

215 


216  Silas  Deane 

Robert  Morris  had  long  been  struggling  with 
that  problem  as  Superintendent  of  Finance,  but 
his  urgent  appeals  and  arguments  were,  as  he  said, 
"like  preaching  to  the  dead."  Deane's  good 
business  head  appears  in  his  remark:  "The 
great  object  of  Congress  is  to  make  a  common 
treasury,  to  be  supplied  by  imposts  and  duties  laid 
by  themselves,  and  collected  and  disposed  of  by 
officers  of  their  appointing. " 

On  the  same  date  as  the  above,  he  wrote  James 
Wilson  that  his  mercantile  endeavors  had  all 
failed,  he  had  tried  in  vain  to  sell  lands  in  Illinois, 
to  pick  up  broken  fragments  of  fortune  in  various 
quarters  and  begin  anew,  but  in  all  his  discourage 
ments  he  was  sustained  by  a  "firm  belief  in  a 
superintending  Providence." 

A  week  later  he  wrote  his  brother  Barnabas 
that  his  son  Jesse  was  miserably  weak  and  low, 
and  an  incision  had  been  made  in  his  neck. 

In  July,  he  wrote  Barnabas  that  he  was  plan 
ning  to  send  his  son  to  America,  though  he  feared 
he  would  never  be  well;  his  business  ventures 
had  come  to  nothing;  of  forty  thousand  dollars 
he  had  left  in  M.  Chaumont's  hands,  nothing 
could  be  recovered  from  the  bankrupt.  Reviewing 
his  long  series  of  misfortunes,  he  speaks  of  the 
combination  of  the  discouragements  which  beset 


Poverty  and  Gloom  217 

him  and  of  the  gloomy  letters  received  in  the  spring 
of  1781,  when  he  wrote  the  "intercepted  letters." 
Overwhelmed  by  trials,  he  had  stayed  in  exile 
and  obscurity  in  Ghent  rather  than  expose  himself 
to  the  censures,  persecutions,  and  malignant 
shafts  of  his  enemies;  but  he  could  not  escape, 
for  in  all  the  English  papers  paragraphs  were 
inserted  declaring  that  he  had  defrauded  his] 
country  of  large  sums  and  fled  from  justice,  j 
Within  three  weeks  of  his  coming  to  London,  he 
was  set  upon  by  a  lot  of  mischievous  scribblers, 
who  renewed  the  attack. 

Benedict  Arnold  called  upon  him  at  once, 
went  to  his  room  unannounced,  and  a  remembrance 
of  past  personal  civilities  and  hospitality  re 
strained  Deane  from  closing  the  door  in  his  face,,' 
but  he  declined  Arnold's  invitation  to  dine  at  his 
house  in  company  with  gentlemen  of  rank  and 
character.  The  next  day,  Deane  changed  his 
lodgings,  but  Arnold  found  where  he  was,  and 
went  up  again  unannounced,  when  Deane  told 
his  unwelcome  visitor  frankly  not  to  visit  him, 
and  that  he  could  not  regard  him  in  the  same 
light  as  formerly  and  he  "had  not  seen  Arnold 
since,  except  passing  in  his  coach. "  One  morning 
a  London  paper  said,  "Yesterday  Mr.  Deane  had 
a  long  interview  with  Lord  North."  The  next 


2i 8  Silas  Deane 

morning,     "Mr.    Deane   was    at    the    Duke    of 
Portland's  levee,  dined  with  Mr.  Fox,"  etc.,  etc. 

The  fact  is  [writes  Deane]  I  have  never  seen  any 
of  these  ministers  except  at  a  distance  in  the  House  of 
Commons  or  in  the  park,  nor  do  I  know  any  of  them 
even  by  sight,  except  it  be  Lord  North  and  Mr.  Fox, 
whose  figures  are  such  that  once  seen  they  must  ever 
afterward  be  known. 

The  key  of  this  chronic  animosity  Deane  thinks 
he  discovers  in  the  fact,  that  as  soon  as  the  pre 
liminaries  of  peace  had  been  signed,  Americans 
hastened  to  England  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
with  the  sanguine  expectation  that  British  ports 
and  stores  of  merchandise  would  be  open  to 
them,  and  that  they  might  obtain  whatever  they 
wanted,  but  they  were  disappointed  in  every 
quarter  for  merchants  in  America  still  owed  the 
English  dealers  two  million  pounds.  The  cause 
for  failure  was  imputed  to  Deane' s  advice,  which 
influenced  the  counsels  of  the  English  cabinet. 

In  a  letter  to  Franklin  of  October  19,  1783, 
Deane  explains  the  situation  more  fully.  He  says 
he  accidentally  became  acquainted  with  Lord  Suf- 
field,  and  answered  his  inquiries  in  a  conversation 
in  the  presence  of  Sir  Robert  Harris.  Lord  Suffield 
was  writing  a  pamphlet  on  the  commercial  re 
lations  of  England  and  America.  Deane  by  no 


Poverty  and  Gloom  219 

means  sympathized  with  the  position  of  Lord 
Suffield,  and  never  talked  with  him  without  taking 
the  opposite  side.  "  Yet  such  has  been  my  fate, " 
he  writes  Franklin,  "that  simply  from  my  intimacy 
with  him,  I  have  had  those  arguments  and  princi 
ples,  which  I  opposed,  attributed  to  me."  Lord 
Suffield' s  object  was  to  secure  to  England  the 
carrying  trade,  and  to  preserve  the  Navigation 
Act  from  being  in  any  way  altered.  Deane  in 
sisted  that  the  carrying  could  not,  beyond  a  certain 
degree,  be  retained  by  England,  and  that  the 
Navigation  Act  was  a  wise  measure  in  its  time, 
but  had  gone  out  of  date. 

Deane  never  lost  the  affection  and  confidence  of 
Beaumarchais,  and  in  a  letter  of  November  3, 
1783,  he  wrote  him: 

You  say  that,  from  the  reports  of  my  friends,  you 
apprehend  that  my  misfortunes  have  affected  my 
spirits,  and  turned  me  toward  a  melancholy  state, 
against  which  you  cautioned  me.  I  thank  you  for 
your  advice,  but  shall  be  doubly  obliged  to  you  for  a 
prescription  to  prevent  that  fatal,  soul-annihilating 
disorder.  Indeed,  I  am  not  gay,  I  am  not  naturally 
so  inclined ;  and  it  is  now  some  years  since  I  have  had 
anything  to  dispel  gloom  and  excite  gayety.  I  have 
at  times  been  very  low  in  spirits,  my  health  has 
suffered  from  it,  but  I  still  survive,  though  lately  very 
ill,  and  still  so  weak  as  to  be  confined  to  my  chamber; 
but  a  consciousness  of  integrity  supports  me;  I  hold 


22o  Silas  Deane 

it  fast,  and  like  good  old  Job,  neither  man  nor  devil 
shall  ever  make  me  let  it  go.  The  painful  recollection 
of  ingratitude  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  'medicine  to 
expel.  I  would  not  change  my  situation  with  my 
enemies ;  I  have  been  guilty  of  many  errors  and  weak 
nesses,  but  never  of  infidelity  to  my  trust,  _or  of  in 
gratitude,  or  injustice  to  my  fellow  men. 

On  the  same  day  as  the  above  he  wrote  his 
brother  Simeon,  explaining  that  his  complaint  for 
not  hearing  from  his  exiled  brother  was  not  be 
cause  of  any  neglect  on  his  part;  he  had  written 
twenty  times,  he  says : 

I  have  lived  to  see  such  things,  that  I  am  surprised 
at  nothing.  Though  I  have  become  almost  callous  to 
reproach,  and  inured  to  misfortune,  and  to  the  treach 
erous  conduct  of  pretended  friends,  yet  I  have  strug 
gled  hard  during  a  gloomy  exile  in  a  gloomy  country, 
to  keep  my  spirits  from  entirely  deserting  me ;  and  these 
struggles  have  at  times  greatly  affected  my  health. 

No  set  of  men  were  ever  guilty  of  greater  meanness 
and  cruelty  in  intercepting  the  correspondence  of 
absent  friends.  This  cruelty  has  been  wanton;  for, 
since  the  publishing  of  my  unfortunate  letters,  I  have 
not  hinted  at  politics  in  any  of  my  correspondence. 

You  wish  to  know  my  plans;  I  really  have  none. 
I  am  quite  at  sea,  without  compass  or  friendly  star 
to  direct  my  course.  My  frail  and  ill-provided  bark 
must  still  drive  as  chance  or  accident  impels. 

I  begin  to  regard  my  demand  on  Congress  as  des 
perate  ;  they  have  long  since  wanted  both  the  will  and 
the  ability  to  do  justice  to  those  who  saved  them. 


Poverty  and  Gloom  221 

That  Deane  was  passing  into  a  healthier  mood 
appears  in  his  references  to  his  study  of  machines, 
especially  of  stationary  steam  engines  for  manu 
facturing  purposes,  with  a  view  of  introducing 
them  into  America. 

r  A  singular  pathos  attaches  to  this  period,  from 
the  fact  that  he  barely  failed  of  an  interview  with  a 
man  he  esteemed  above  almost  all  others,  whose 
good  will  he  longed  for, — John  Jay;  to  whom  he 
wrote  from  his  Fleet  Street  lodgings  on  November 
4,  1783,  that  he  had  been  held  back  by  illness  from 
calling  on  him,  and  when  he  called  Jay  was  gone. 
"I  am  anxious  for  one  hour's  conversation  with 
you,"  he  wrote. 

In  a  letter  to  Thomas  Barclay  of  November  7, 
he  reviews  his  accounts,  says  he  has  vouchers  for 
almost  everything,  and  pleads  for  an  order  for  a 
part  at  least  of  the  money  due  him. 

On  the  same  day,  he  wrote  Franklin  concerning 
the  reports  circulating  to  his  disadvantage,  saying 
that  he  had  improved  every  opportunity  to  have 
the  restraint  on  commerce  in  the  West  Indies 
removed  or  moderated. 

On  November  3,  1783,  Deane  issued  an  address 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  having  sent 
the  copy  of  it  over  by  his  son  Jesse.  He  reviews 
the  three  years'  misfortune  and  exile,  and  says 


222  Silas  Deane 

the  two  charges  against  him  are,  first,  that  he  is 
guilty  of  fraud  and  peculation  in  the  management 
of  public  moneys;  second,  that  after  his  return 
to  France  in  1781,  he  wrote  letters  from  interested 
motives,  and  with  a  base  and  treacherous  desire 
to  injure  his  country,  having  previously  engaged 
in  the  interests  of  her  enemies.  He  insists  that  a 
man  with  his  character  and  standing,  up  to  the 
time  of  his  going  to  Europe  in  the  spring  of  1776, 
should  not  be  condemned  without  a  hearing. 

After  most  of  the  contracts  for  stores  and  ships 
had  been  completed,  there  came  to  him,  early  in 
1778,  the  call  of  Congress  that  he  should  return 
and  report  on  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe. 
Advised  by  Vergennes  and  Franklin  to  keep  the 
recall  a  secret,  he  could  not  in  the  complicated 
state  of  affairs,  having  had  dealings  with  widely 
scattered  men,  and  forwarding  goods  secretly, 
make  up  his  accounts  at  a  few  days'  notice.  Had 
he  attempted  to  do  so,  it  would  have  defeated  the 
secrecy  which  he  was  advised  to  observe. 

Though  he  had  received  no  intimation  from  any 
letter  from  Congress  of  dissatisfaction  with  his 
management,  he  was  aware  that  his  fellow- 
commissioner,  Arthur  Lee,  was  a  jealous  and  art 
ful  enemy,  and  that  Lee  was  in  correspondence 
with  leading  men  in  America;  therefore  he  was 


Poverty  and  Gloom  223 

anxious  to  delay  his  return  until  all  accounts  were 
settled  and  closed,  but  yielding  his  judgment,  he 
set  sail,  taking  from  Grand,  the  banker,  a  state 
ment  of  all  the  moneys  received  or  paid  out  on  the 
account  of  the  United  States.  With  this  and  the 
testimonials  of  the  king,  the  minister,  and  his 
colleague  and  intimate  friend,  Franklin,  as  to  this 
zeal  and  integrity,  he  had  no  fear  of  censure  for 
lack  of  vouchers  in  detail;  but  the  venomous  pen 
of  Lee  had  poisoned  the  minds  of  public  men  be 
yond  anything  he  had  imagined,  by  insinuating 
that  he  had  become  immensely  rich  in  public 
service,  and  consequently  that  he  must  have  been 
guilty  of  dishonesty,  and,  though  summoned  home 
to  report  on  the  state  of  European  affairs,  his 
first  audience  with  Congress  was  after  six  weeks' 
attendance  and  solicitation.  He  then  gave  a 
verbal  statement  and  asked,  that  if  there  was  any 
charge  against  him,  he  might  be  heard  in  ex 
planation  and  defense;  he  was  not  told  of  any,  and 
though  Congress  appeared  in  no  way  dissatisfied 
with  his  conduct,  and  the  settlement  of  public 
and  private  affairs  pressed  him  to  return,  he  could 
not  obtain  any  resolution  of  Congress  either 
to  approve  or  disapprove,  or  another  hearing  until 
late  in  December,  though  he  asked  almost  every 
day  for  another  audience. 


224  Silas  Deane 

In  December,  he  gave  a  written  narrative,  and 
Congress  appointed  a  committee,  which  did  not 
give  him  an  audience  or  ask  him  a  question. 
The  committee  studiously  evaded  every  opportu 
nity  to  get  information  or  hear  explanation. 

During  more  than  fourteen  months  of  stay  in 
Philadelphia,  Deane  had  only  two  audiences 
with  Congress,  and  not  one  with  the  committee 
specially  appointed. 

In  December,  1778,  finding  that  there  was  a 
party  determined  on  his  ruin,  which  had  sufficient 
influence  to  prevent  all  examination,  and  to  bear 
him  down  by  the  most  mortifying  delay  and 
neglect,  he  issued  his  first  address  to  the  public 
through  the  newspapers ;  this  led  Congress  to  give 
him  a  hearing  and  appoint  the  committee.  The 
papers  took  up  the  matter  in  the  most  outrageous 
and  abusive  way,  and  Deane  made  no  reply  to 
their  lies,  but  kept  urging  Congress  and  the  com 
mittee  to  give  him  a  hearing.  From  December, 
1778,  to  August,  1779,  he  wrote  Congress  more 
than  thirty  letters  humbly  petitioning  for  a  public 
examination  and  trial;  they  never  took  the  least 
notice  of  his  requests.  Through  private  con 
versations  with  the  members,  he  learned  that  the 
only  difficulty  lay  in  the  fact  that  his  accounts 
were  unsettled.  To  obviate  this,  Deane  returned 


Poverty  and  Gloom  225 

to  France  with  an  assurance  from  Congress  that 
it  would  empower  a  man  to  settle  the  accounts, 
but  when  that  officer  was  appointed,  his  powers 
were  so  limited  that  he  declined  to  act.  Deane 
wrote  immediately  to  Congress  asking  for  more 
ample  power  for  the  auditor.  Twelve  months  of 
heavy  expense  went  by,  with  a  vague  charge  of 
default  over  him,  and  no  word  came  from  Congress 
until  November,  1781,  when  he  learned  of  the 
appointment  of  Thomas  Barclay  as  consul,  but 
Barclay  told  Deane  he  had  received  no  instructions. 

Soon  after  this  came  the  mortification  of  the 
publishing  of  the  "intercepted  letters"  of  May  and 
June.  Proscribed,  obnoxious,  exiled,  he  still 
waited  for  Congress,  which  had  had  his  accounts 
over  eighteen  months;  it  was  over  five  years 
since  he  had  money  or  employment  from  the 
public.  He  says:  "Has  any  fraud  been  de 
tected?  Had  I  been  guilty  of  any,  would  not  my 
enemies  have  published  it,  instead  of  charging  me 
generally  of  being  a  defaulter  of  uncalculated 
millions?"  Ought  not  the  written  statements 
of  Franklin  in  1778,  and  again  in  1782,  as  to  his 
ability,  faithfulness,  and  honesty,  to  have  some 
weight? 

He  reviews  his  whole  career  in  Europe,  shows 
how  he  managed  the  difficult  task  of  forwarding 

IS 


226  Silas  Deane 

supplies,  with  the  French  government  vacillating, 
English  officers  alert,  and  little  money,  yet  in 
November,  1776,  two  hundred  brass  cannon  and 
mortars,  thirty  thousand  fusils,  with  ammunition, 
clothing,  and  tents  for  as  many  men,  were  at  the 
ports  ready  for  the  ships,  which  were  there  to 
receive  them,  and  after  the  most  positive  orders 
given  by  the  Court  forbidding  the  sailing  of  the 
ships,  two  vessels,  the  Amphitrite  and  Mercure, 
were  got  to  sea  under  pretense  of  sailing  to  San 
Domingo,  and  these  carried  large  military  supplies 
to  Portsmouth  in  April,  1777;  and  when  General 
Burgoyne  capitulated,  his  army  was  surrounded 
by  men  armed  with  the  fusils  and  supported  by 
artillery  sent  over  in  these  vessels. 

The  victory  at  Saratoga  led  France  to  conclude 
a  treaty  with  America,  and  in  a  great  degree 
decided  the  independence  of  the  United  States. 

He  quotes  Beaumarchais'  letter  of  March  23, 
1778,  in  which  he  assures  Congress  that  if  the 
money,  stores,  and  merchandise  have  been  of  any 
use  to  America,  the  gratitude  of  the  country  is 
due  "to  the  indefatigable  pains  Deane  had  taken 
through  the  whole  transaction. " 

We  look  with  special  interest  to  Deane's  ex 
planation  of  the  " intercepted  letters"  of  1781 :  the 
news  from  America  was  gloomy,  the  British 


Poverty  and  Gloom  227 

forces  were  in  possession  of  the  whole  seacoast 
from  the  Chesapeake  southward ;  they  ravaged  and 
distressed  the  country ;  their  ships  intercepted  our 
trade;  America  had  no  fleet;  Washington's  army 
was  too  weak  for  offensive  operation:  Congress 
had  neither  money  nor  credit;  Washington  de 
clared  "that  without  a  decidedly  superior  fleet 
to  that  of  Great  Britain  in  America,  all  opposition 
to  the  British  forces  would  soon  be  at  an  end." 
All  letters  from  America  were  in  this  style. 

My  letters  were  published  [he  adds  sadly],  others 
not.  I  then  thought  that  a  reunion,  not  simply  on  the 
condition  of  being  replaced  in  the  state  in  which  we 
were  previous  to  1763  (for  which  alone  Congress  in 
1774,  and  in  1775,  petitioned) ,  but  on  terms  every  way 
preferable ;  namely,  to  be  governed  solely  by  laws  of  our 
own  enacting,  taxed  by  our  own  assemblies,  and  of  en 
joying  the  same  commercial  privileges  and  pro 
tection  as  other  members  of  the  British  Empire — 
a  condition  preferable  to  that  of  war,  hazarding  the 
experiment  of  independent  sovereignty.  This  opin 
ion  which  I  gave  my  friends  was  regarded  as  little 
short  of  high  treason. 

The  first  and  second  Continental  Congresses 
petitioned  for  a  restoration  to  the  former  condi 
tions  of  "law,  loyalty,  faith,  and  blood." 

Soon  afterward  Franklin  drew  up  several 
resolutions  declaring  that  the  idea  that  "we  aim 


228  Silas  Deane 

at  independence  and  the  abolition  of  the  Navi 
gation  Act  is  groundless." 

After  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
issued,  Franklin,  with  the  approval  of  Congress, 
wrote  to  Lord  Howe,  July  30,  1776:  "  Long  did  I 
endeavor  to  preserve  from  breaking  the  British 
Empire,  for  I  knew  that  once  broken,  perfect  re 
union  of  the  parts  could  not  be  hoped  for. " 

"Was  it  a  crime  for  me,"  wrote  Deane,  "in 
1781,  to  wish  for  a  perfect  reunion,  and  in  private 
urge  my  friends  to  promote  the  event  which  Dr. 
Franklin  had  most  devoutly  wished?  " 

Three  fourths  of  the  ships  sailing  from  the 
United  States  had  been  captured,  the  paper  of 
Congress  was  not  passed  at  any  rate;  General 
Washington  said  that  without  aid  from  France  to 
pay  the  troops,  and  a  fleet  superior  to  the  British , 
all  opposition  would  end  with  that  campaign. 
The  whole  of  the  naval  force  ordered  by  France 
that  season  to  the  West  Indies  and  America  was 
not  equal  to  the  British.  De  Grasse  was  first 
ordered  to  the  West  Indies,  thence  to  the  Conti 
nent,  but  as  more  than  four  hundred  sail  of  the 
French  merchant  ships  would  need  convoy  from 
the  West  Indies,  it  was  given  out  in  France  that 
previous  to  sailing  northward,  a  part  of  De 
Grasse's  fleet  would  attend  the  merchant  ships. 


Poverty  and  Gloom  229 

No  one  at  the  time  would  expect  that  the  Count 
would  take  every  French  ship  of  war  with  him, 
or  that  Cornwallis  would  fix  on  one  of  the  most 
unfavorable  positions  of  the  country  for  defense, 
or  that  General  Clinton  would  allow  Washington 
and  Rochambeau  to  march  without  opposition 
to  Virginia,  or  that  several  British  ships  would 
remain  in  the  West  Indies,  thereby  making  the 
French  force  superior  to  the  British. 

In  that  critical  time,  that  dangerous  situation, 
the  unfortunate  letters  were  written,  and  distorted 
in  the  publication. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  appeal  made 
little  difference  with  the  attitude  of  the  country 
toward  Deane.  The  damaging,  the  insuperable 
fact  which  stood  in  his  way  was  that  his  ac 
counts  with  Congress  were  unsettled,  and  the 
inference  gathered,  even  by  considerate  men,  was 
that  there  was  good  reason  for  the  hostility  of 
Congress. 

The  correspondence  of  Deane  and  Jay  at  this 
period  is  painful ;  the  former  was  eager  to  meet  the 
latter,  and  extremely  sensitive  to  his  opinion. 
Any  delay  of  the  latter  in  writing  increased  Deane's 
misery.  The  culmination  of  agony  was  reached 
in  a  letter  from  Jay  to  Deane,  dated  February 
23,  1 784,  in  which  he  said : 


230  Silas  Deane 

It  is  painful  to  say  disagreeable  things  to  any  person, 
and  especially  to  those  with  whom  I  have  lived  in 
habits  of  friendship.  But  candor  forbids  reserve. 
You  were  of  the  number  of  those  who  possessed  my 
esteem,  and  to  whom  I  was  attached.  I  cannot  ex 
press  the  regret  I  experienced  from  the  cruel  necessity 
I  thought  myself  under  of  passing  over  the  card  and 
letter  in  silence ;  but  I  love  my  country  and  my  honor 
better  than  my  friends,  and  even  my  family.  You 
are  either  exceedingly  injured,  or  no  friend  to  America ; 
and  while  doubts  remain  on  that  point,  all  connection 
between  us  must  be  suspended.  I  wish  to  hear  what 
you  might  have  to  say  on  that  head,  and  should  have 
named  a  time  and  a  place  for  an  interview,  had  not  an 
insurmountable  obstacle  intervened  to  prevent  it. 
I  was  told  by  more  than  one,  whose  information  I 
thought  I  could  rely  on,  that  you  received  visits  from, 
and  were  on  terms  of  intimacy  with,  General  Arnold . 
Every  American  who  gives  his  hand  to  that  man,  in  my 
opinion,  pollutes  it.  I  think  it  my  duty  to  deal  thus 
candidly  with  you,  and  assure  you  with  equal  sin 
cerity  that  it  would  give  me  cordial  satisfaction  to 
find  you  able  to  acquit  yourself  in  the  judgment  of  the 
dispassionate  and  the  impartial. 

On  May  3,  Deane  wrote  Jay  of  "the  insur 
mountable  obstacle, "  saying: 

One  hour's  conversation  would  do  more  to  convince 
you  that  I  am  neither  an  enemy  to  our  country  nor 
intimate  with  General  Arnold  than  a  volume.  I 
have  no  interest  to  deceive  you  with  respect  to  General 
Arnold ;  on  my  first  arrival  in  London  twelve  months 
since,  he  called  on  me  abruptly  two  or  three  times, 


Poverty  and  Gloom  231 

and  as  it  happened,  there  was  company,  some  of  them 
Americans,  with  me  each  time.  The  last  time,  as  I 
waited  him  down,  I  requested  him  to  discontinue  his 
visits,  which  he  did,  and  it  is  now  ten  months  since 
I  have  seen  him. 

Deane  exploded  the  charge  of  advising  the 
British  Ministry  to  pass  measures  unfriendly  to 
American  commerce,  showing  that  his  attitude 
had  been  the  opposite  of  that  attributed  to  him, 
that  he  never  met  Lord  Suffield  without  a  dispute 
on  the  commerce  with  the  West  Indies. 

That  Deane  was  not  calling  upon  his  imagi 
nation,  when  he  wrote  of  the  commercial  charges, 
appears  from  a  letter  from  Laurens  to  Livingstone, 
dated  Bath,  July  17,  1783,  in  which  the  writer 
says:  "I  was  informed  yesterday  (and  through 
pretty  good  authority,  I  speak  only  as  from  re 
port)  that  Mr.  Silas  Deane,  who  has  been  in 
London  about  four  months,  has  been  an  active 
hand  in  chalking  out  a  treaty  of  commerce  with 


us." 


Deane' s  worry  in  this  gloomy  period  was  in 
creased  by  the  unjust  charge  of  a  dissolute  member 
of  the  Webb  family  that  Deane  had  defrauded  the 
family,  whereas  for  years  Deane  urged  the  ap 
pointment  of  auditors  to  settle  everything  in 
equity. 


232  Silas  Deane 

From  a  letter  to  Beaumarchais  we  learn  the 
rigid  and  exacting  conditions  under  which  Barclay 
was  to  judge  his  case.  Explicit  vouchers  were  de 
manded  for  everything;  the  quality  of  clothing, 
cannon  ,fusees,and  powder  sent  over  seven  years  be 
fore  was  to  be  inquired  into,  and  no  money  paid 
until  Congress  should  approve.  "The  age  of  Me 
thuselah,  "  wrote  Deane,  "would  be  needed  for  your 
account  and  mine. "  In  reality,  it  was  half  a  cen 
tury  before  the  heirs  of  Beaumarchais  and  Deane 
were  paid  even  a  percentage  of  their  just  dues. 

Deane's  misery  in  London  is  disclosed  in  a  letter 
to  his  brother  Simeon,  April  3,  1784,  in  which  he 
says  his  name  is  again  taken  up,  and  from  being 
a  poor,  distressed,  and  even  a  despised  exile,  he  is 
spoken  of  as  a  man  who  influenced  the  counsels 
of  nations  and  directed  the  late  ministers  in  their 
measures  concerning  our  commerce.  He  says: 
"Every  American  in  Europe  professes  to  believe 
this  fully,  and  I  expect,  for  a  time  at  least,  it  will  be 
received  and  credited  without  question,  and  hence 
my  correspondence  may  be  again  intercepted. " 

He  does  not  authorize  his  brother  to  contradict 
these  reports,  for 

Though  I  sent  you  proofs  of  the  falsity,  strong  as 
those  of  holy  writ,  or  mathematical  demonstration, 
it  would  avail  nothing  in  the  present  temper  of  the 


Poverty  and  Gloom  233 

times.  It  is  the  general  belief  of  my  countrymen  here 
that,  but  for  the  advice  and  information  that  I  gave 
on  my  first  arrival  here,  we  should  have  been  admitted 
to  a  free  commerce  with  British  West  Indies,  and  every 
other  part  of  the  British  Dominion,  on  the  same  terms 
as  before  separation. 

This  is  untrue.  The  only  interview  he  ever  had 
with  the  ministers  was  long  after  the  measure  was 
taken,  and  the  reason  for  his  asking  for  an  inter 
view  then  was  to  persuade  them  to  adopt  a  dif 
ferent  plan,  and  lay  our  commerce  open  to  the 
West  Indies  for  everything,  except  the  carrying 
of  sugar  to  Europe,  and  he  believes  that  would 
have  been  adopted  had  it  not  been  for  the  sudden 
change  in  the  Ministry. 

I  do  not  blame  my  countrymen  [he  sadly  continues] 
for  their  suspicions  of  me;  they  know  that  I  am  a 
man  greatly  injured,  that  I  have  in  fact  been  un 
gratefully  proscribed  and  driven  from  my  country, 
and  they  know  that  I  am  not  devoid  of  passion  and 
resentment,  and  the  conclusion  which  they  draw  is 
natural,  and  though  in  present  instance  unjust,  it 
would  be  to  no  purpose  to  attempt  to  convince  them 
at  present. 

Deane's  despondency,  in  view  of  the  hope 
lessness  of  his  political  and  financial  situation, 
was  relieved  by  tours  among  the  manufacturing 
towns,  to  examine  new  inventions  in  machinery, 


234  Silas  Deane 

of  most  of  which  he  made  drafts,  with  the  hope 
of  introducing  some  of  them  into  America. 

Speaking  of  his  accounts,  he  says  Barclay  is  so 
tied  up  that  there  is  no  prospect  of  any  settlement, 
especially  as  Congress  has  nothing  to  pay  him. 

It  was  while  touring  through  the  manufacturing 
districts  of  England,  hoping  to  find  some  new 
avenue  toward  the  recovery  of  his  fortunes,  that 
Deane  had  a  sickening  experience  with  a  man  who 
had  been  apparently  one  of  his  warmest  friends, 
Henry  Laurens,  president  of  Congress. 

In  December  1783,  while  Deane  was  visiting 
Birmingham,  Laurens  reached  the  city,  and  seeing 
Deane  and  Dr.  Priestly  together,  sought  out  a 
Mr.  Russel,  an  intimate  friend  of  Priestly's,  and 
told  him  that  Deane  was  unworthy  of  confidence 
on  four  counts.  These  were  promptly  delivered 
to  Priestly,  who  had  the  frankness  to  give  the  in 
formation  to  Deane,  who  was  able  at  once  to  re 
fute  them  and  retain  the  confidence  and  friendship 
of  Priestly. 

The   four   charges   were   as   follows: 

1.  That  Deane  was  poor  and   in  no   decent 
estimate  before  entering  public  life. 

2.  That  he  shipped  two  vessels  with  goods 
from  France. 

3.  That    while    commissioner  he  intercepted 


Poverty  and  Gloom  235 

the  despatch  sent  by  Captain  Folger,  and  put  in 
blank  paper. 

4.  That  on  his  return  he  used  every  artifice 
to  avoid  being  called  to  account. 

Yet  in  conversation  Laurens  admitted  that  he 
did  not  doubt  but  the  time  would  come  when  Deane 
would  justify  himself.  Deane  wrote  a  paper  an 
swering  the  four  charges  of  Laurens.  After 
reviewing  his  work  in  France  up  to  the  time  of 
his  recall,  he  says  Laurens,  president  of  Congress, 
received  him  with  open  arms,  congratulated  him 
on  the  prospect  of  disappointing  his  enemies,  and 
said  that  he  had  always  opposed  the  resolution  for 
the  recall. 

Though  warned  by  his  knowledge  of  the  enmity 
of  Arthur  Lee,  William  Lee,  and  Izard,  and  by 
Hosmer  of  Connecticut,  an  old  student  friend, 
that  it  was  the  plan  of  his  enemies  to  undermine 
and  destroy  him  by  delay,  Laurens'  warm  ex 
pression  of  friendship  prevented  Deane 's  enter 
taining  the  least  doubt  of  his  sincerity,  and 
sixteen  months  went  by  while  Deane  waited, 
hoping  that  Congress  would  take  action. 

In   that   time   Deane   wrote   forty-two   appli 
cations  for  examination  and   decision,   until   at  | 
length  he  saw  that  Laurens  was  in  conspiracy 
with  the  Lees  and  Izard  to  prevent  his  return. 


236  Silas  Deane 

As  to  the  four  charges: 

1.  Low  estate  and  poverty.      While  member 
of  Congress  for  two  terms,  Deane  had  served  on 
many  important  committees  and  had  an  unlimited 
credit.     Livingstone,  Alsop,  Maurice,  and  Lewis 
committed  to  his  sole  management  a  contract  of 
forty  thousand  pounds,  and  with  Livingstone  and 
Alsop  he  had  other  large  concerns  in  trade.     He 
lived  in  the  first  style  until  the  depreciation  of 
the  paper  of  Congress  swept  away  the  major  part 
of  his  fortune,  which  was  invested  in  bonds  and 
mortgages.     Compared  with  Laurens  he  was  poor, 
but  his  money  was  not  acquired  by  slavery,  by  the 
toil  and  distress  of  hundreds  of  slaves,  or  by  con 
signments  of  negroes. 

2.  As  to  the  sending  over  two  ships  with  valu 
able  cargo.     Laurens  knew  that  he  had  not  enough 
money  to  purchase  one  half  of  one  of  them,  but 
the  insinuation  was  that  the  money  came  from  the 
British  government.     Suppose  he  had  sent  over 
twenty  ships,  if  he  could  do  it  without  neglect 
of  duty  what  occasion  was  there  for  criticism? 
But  Laurens  knew  that  his  statement  about  even 
two  ships  on  his  own  account  was  false.     When 
Deane  went  to  France  he  had  arranged  with  Morris 
to  appear  there  as  a  merchant,  and  a  small  brig- 
antine  was  sent  from  Bordeaux,  of  which  Deane 


Poverty  and  Gloom  237 

owned  one  third  and  Morris  another  third.     That 
ship  was  captured  by  the  English.     Six  months 
afterward  a  larger  ship  was  sent  out  of  which1 
Morris  owned  one  fourth,  Deane  one  fourth,  and 
a  house  in  Paris  one  half,  but  with  no  profits 
owing  to  depreciation  of  money.     "I  put  not  a| 
trunkful  of  goods  on   the  vessels  which   carried 
military  supplies,  though  I  might  have  done  it, 
as  Laurens  has  every  opportunity  to  know,  for 
he  has  been  many  months  in  France." 

3.  Equally  false  was   the  charge  concerning 
the  " intercepted  letters/' 

4.  As  to  the  reluctance  for  the  investigation  at 
the  hands  of  Congress,  Deane  wrote  many  letters 
soliciting  inquiry,  and  they  were  laid  on  the  table. 

I  was  with  Mr.  Laurens  daily  [wrote  Deane]. 
I  did  not  see  beneath  that  solemn  mask  which  he 
never  puts  off.  Colonel  Duer  seemed  interested  in  me, 
and  when  the  coming  to  a  resolution  on  my  conduct 
could  no  longer  be  delayed,  a  motion  was  made  to  take 
the  matter  into  consideration,  that  I  might  be  de 
tained  no  longer.  There  was  no  opposition,  but 
just  as  the  question  was  about  to  be  put,  Mr.  Laurens, 
contrary  to  all  precedent,  rose,  and  with  great  ap 
pearance  of  candor  and  expressions  of  esteem  for  me, 
informed  Congress  that  some  weeks  before  he  had 
received  private  letters  from  Mr.  Izard,  and  as  Mr. 
Izard  wished  him  to  show  them  to  Colonel  Duer,  he 
desired  that  gentleman  to  call  on  him  to  jointly  ex- 


238  Silas  Deane 

amine  the  letters  to  see  whether  it  was  proper  to  lay 
any  part  of  them  before  Congress.  Upon  this  Congress 
voted  to  postpone  all  action  on  me  to  some  future  day. 

That  evening  Deane  called  on  Laurens  and 
was  greeted  by  the  solemn  yet  cordial  president, 
who  piously  told  him  that  his  call  must  be  by  the 
direction  of  Divine  Providence,  for  he  was  think 
ing  of  Izard's  letters,  which  the  two  men  proceeded 
to  consider.  Those  letters  were  written  in  Feb 
ruary,  March,  April,  and  June,  1778,  and  they 
contained  little  more  than  complaints  of  the  con 
duct  of  Franklin  and  Deane  in  negotiating  the 
treaties.  Here  is  a  sample:  "How  these  gentle 
men  could  take  upon  them  to  act  so  directly  in 
opposition  to  their  instructions  I  cannot  conceive. 
Dr.  Franklin  has  taken  upon  himself,  expressly 
contrary  to  the  instructions  of  Congress,  to  with 
hold  the  treaty  from  me."  Of  Deane  he  said: 

I  shall  avoid  entering  into  particulars  respecting  this 
gentleman,  and  shall  only  give  my  opinion  of  him, 
which  is  that  if  the  whole  world  had  been  searched, 
I  think  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  find  one 
more  unfit  for  the  office  into  which  he  has  by  the 
storm  and  convulsions  of  the  times  been  shaken. 

Of  Franklin  he  wrote : 

His  abilities  are  great  and  his  reputation  high. 
Removed  as  he  is  from  the  observations  of  his  con- 


Poverty  and  Gloom  239 

stituents,  if  he  is  not  guided  by  principles  of  virtue  and 
honor,  those  abilities  and  that  reputation  may  pro 
duce  the  most  mischievous  effects.  In  my  con 
science  I  declare  to  you  that  I  believe  to  be  under  no 
such  internal  restraints.  .  .  .  Nothing  but  my 
own  observation  could  have  convinced  me  so  thor 
oughly  how  undeservedly  it  is  possible  to  be  bestowed. 
If  anything  was  necessary  to  make  the  effrontery 
which  I  have  complained  of  complete,  it  was  Dr. 
Franklin's  observation  that  if  my  observations  were 
ever  so  just,  it  was  now  too  late  for  any  remedy.  His 
tricks  and  chicanery  put  it  out  of  my  power  to  make 
any  objection,  before  the  treaties  were  signed  and 
sent  to  America,  and  then  he  gives  that  as  a  reason 
why  no  remedy  should  be  attempted.  In  my  con 
science  I  believe  him  to  be  an  improper  person  to  be 
intrusted  with  the  management  of  the  affairs  of 
America  in  this  kingdom.  If  sent  to  Vienna  he  will 
not  have  an  opportunity  of  doing  any  harm. 

One  smiles  at  the  following  comment  of  the 
high-minded  Izard  on  Franklin:  "His  tricks  are 
in  general  carried  on  with  so  much  cunning  that 
it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  fix  them  on  him. " 

After  reading  these  illuminating  letters  together, 
Laurens,  with  professions  of  great  friendship, 
asked  Deane's  advice  whether  he  should  suppress 
them  as  ebullitions  of  anger  and  resentment  at 
some  supposed  neglect,  or  lay  them  before  Con 
gress.  Deane  saw  through  this  flimsy  schemer. 
"  I  plainly  saw,"  says  he,  "that  Laurens  wished 


240  Silas  Deane 

me  to  advise  the  total  suppression  of  the  letters, 
which  advice  he  could  afterward  turn  into  a  re 
quest  on  my  part,  to  give  the  contents  greater 
force."  Deane  was  too  shrewd  to  fall  into  the 
snare,  but  told  Laurens  that  he  was  too  much 
interested  to  give  advice,  but  the  whole  or  none 
should  be  given  to  Congress;  that  Laurens  was 
the  proper  judge;  that  the  only  charge  against 
himself  was  haughtiness  of  temper  and  inca 
pacity,  while  the  charge  against  Franklin  was 
breach  of  trust  and  a  want  of  any  principles 
either  of  virtue  or  honor,  and  that  he  could 
answer  for  his  absent  friend  as  fully  as  for 
himself;  that  no  specific  charge  could  be  brought 
against  either,  which  he  would  decline  or  evade 
answering. 

Laurens  seemed  undecided,  said  Izard  was 
passionate,  but  he  was  his  friend,  and  to  lay 
the  matter  before  Congress  would  tend  to  hurt 
him.  The  next  day  Deane  met  Laurens  coming 
out  of  Congress,  and  with  melancholy  voice  the 
latter  said,  "I  believe  Mr.  Izard  will  never  for 
give  me,  for  I  have  laid  the  whole  letters  before 
Congress. " 

The  only  effect  of  the  letters  was  to  defer  action 
on  Deane 's  accounts.  Every  request  for  a  hearing 
was  refused,  and  on  October  3,  a  letter  from 


Poverty  and  Gloom  241 

Arthur  Lee  was  read  in  Congress,  which  com 
plained  of  Deane's  unsettled  accounts  and  ex 
travagant  contracts,  not  charging  him  with 
dishonesty,  but  only  with  imprudent  management. 
Congress  passed  no  censure,  but  kept  silent,  until 
Deane's  public  appeal  of  December  5,  which  was 
resented  by^Laurens^  who,  on  the  morning  of  its 
publication,  left  the  chair  because  Deane  reflected 
upon  him,  a  fact  which  he  thought  should  be 
noticed  by  the  House.  Finding  the  majority 
against  him  he  resigned  the  presidency,  and  Jay 
was  chosen  in  his  place.  From  that  hour  Laurens  * 
became  Deane's  open  and  avowed  enemy,  and  I 
faction  and  disorder  became  so  rife  that  con 
tending  parties  took  arms,  and  shed  blood  in  the 
streets. 

There  is  an  interesting  letter  of  Robert  Morris 
to  Deane,  dated  December  5,  1785,  which  sheds 
light  on  this  gloomy  chapter  in  Deane's  life. 
The  great  financier  says  he  could  not  take  up  any 
of  Deane's  manufacturing  schemes  for  lack  of 
funds;  he  advised  him  not  to  come  to  America, 
for  he  would  risk  a  cool  reception  from  those 
who  persisted  in  attributing  bad  motives,  and 
indifference  from  others  who  were  convinced  by 
Deane's  assurances,  but  lacked  the  courage  to 
avow  their  convictions.  He  continues: 

16 


242  Silas  Deane 

Those  few  who  have  charged  your  errors  to  im 
prudence,  not  wickedness,  being  unable  to  stem  the 
torrent,  must  give  way  to  it.  From  the  hand  of  time 
alone  can  you  expect  that  the  impression  against  you 
will  be  obliterated;  but  in  the  course  of  things,  a  time 
will  come  when  people  will  be  disposed  to  hear  you  and 
to  believe,  because  of  such  an  opportunity,  the  ulti 
mate  opinion. 

A  ray  of  comfort  like  this  was  meager  enough  to 
a  proud  man  compelled  to  entreat  his  brother 
Barnabas  to  send  him  a  few  dollars  to  put  bread 
into  his  mouth.  At  other  times  black  night  shut 
down  upon  him,  as  when,  sick  and  helpless  in 
1788,  he  was  robbed  of  his  clothing,  and  of  a  part 
of  his  valuable  papers,  which  were  sold  to  the 
United  States  government.  Deane  suffered  much 
through  those  years  of  isolation  and  poverty 

:in  England.  At  length  he  gave  up  all  expectation 
of  justice  at  the  hands  of  Congress.  Aside  from 
the  fact  that  his  country  was  wallowing  through 
the  mire  of  financial  depression,  bankruptcy,  and 
distress,  occasioned  by  the  long  war  and  de 
preciation  of  the  currency,  he  clearly  saw  that 
Congress  would  not  vote  to  do  him  justice,  because 
such  a  vote  would  virtually  condemn  the  men 
who  had  for  years  so  bitterly  wronged  him.  In 
such  a  combination  and  succession  of  losses,  mis 
fortunes,  and  disappointments,  we  wonder  that  he 


Poverty  and  Gloom  243 

did  not  utterly  lose  heart  and  even  mind ;  that  he 
did  not  was  no  doubt  due  in  some  degree  to  the 
fact  that  he  never  lost  the  hope  of  reestablish-^ 
ing  his  fortune  by  some  enterprise  in  America,; 
toward  which  he  was  ever  looking. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


DEANE 's  LAST  ENTERPRISE  AND  ITS  FAILURE 


VV  7E  have  noticed  how  Deane  had  tried  in  vari 
ous  ways  to  rebuild  his  shattered  fortunes, 
and  regain  his  standing  in  the  business  world. 

In  July,  1785,  he  wrote  his  stepson,  S.  B.  Webb, 
that  he  was  studying  the  manufacturing  towns  of 
England,  had  seen  a  machine  which  spun  nearly 
five  thousand  threads  at  once;  he  was  also  in 
terested  in  a  corn  mill ;  that  he  was  intimately  ac 
quainted  with  inventors  who  were  making  immense 
fortunes;  that  he  was  writing  to  several  friends  in 
America  about  setting  up  mills. 

About  that  time  Deane  proposed  to  the  English 
Ministry  a  plan  for  a  navigation  canal  from  Lake 
Champlain  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  via  Chambly. 

The  fall  is  ninety  feet,  and,  as  early  as  1775,  he 
had  brought  the  project  before  Holdimand  and  his 
successor,  Lord  Dorchester,  governors  of  Quebec, 
to  open  the  lake  to  ships  from  England. 

Additional  study  deepened  his  conviction  that 
it  would  be  a  valuable  part  of  the  system  of  inland 

244 


Fresh  Hopes  Die  Away          245 

navigation  which  gave  England  five  thousand 
miles  of  artificial  waterways  before  the  era  of  rail 
ways,  and  he  gave  the  results  of  his  studies  to 
Lord  Sydney,  explaining  that  it  would  open  an 
avenue  from  an  extensive  country  to  the  West 
Indies,  for  the  carriage  of  cattle,  hogs,  flour, 
lumber,  and  fish.  He  thought  it  could  be  built  for 
ten  thousand  pounds,  and  he  asked  for  the  office 
of  superintendent  while  building. 

The  enterprise  commended  itself  to  the  in 
fluential  men  to  whom  he  applied,  but  the  health 
of  the  much-tried  man  was  a  question  which  must 
be  reckoned  with.  On  June  30,  I  J^t  Deane  wrote 
Lord  Suffield  that  he  was  really  too  weak  to  write, 
that  his  fever  was  constant  and  increasing,  that  he 
was  barely  able  to  walk  across  the  room.  He  says 
that  three  days  before,  while  going  as  far  as 
"Bird  Cage  Walk,"  he  accidentally  met  Irwin, 
Lord  Suffield' s  financial  agent,  and  he  relieved 
Deane's  extreme  want;  Wilkinson  had  also  as 
sisted  him  with  money.  His  friend  Bancroft 
would  gladly  help  him  were  it  possible,  but  he  was 
involved  in  vexatious  lawsuits. 

The  language  is  realistic  and  touching;  he 
writes : 

I  get  but  little  rest  at  night,  for  my  coughing  is 
almost  incessant,  and  my  night-sweats,  which  but 


246  Silas  Deane 

lately  afflicted  me,  are  profuse,  so  that  I  have  scarcely 
a  thread  of  my  linen  dry  in  the  morning.  My  appetite 
is  gone ;  I  have  not  eaten  anything  solid  for  more  than 
ten  days.  Fruit,  a  poached  egg  beat  up  in  milk,  warm 
from  the  cow,  with  sugar,  nutmeg,  and  some  spirit  in  it, 
have  been  my  sole  nourishment,  nor  has  my  stomach 
at  all  times  been  able  to  bear  even  these ;  and  I  have 
frequently  cold  and  aguish  times  of  shivering.  Ex 
cuse  me,  my  lord,  for  being  thus  particular.  I  wish 
to  lay  my  case  simply  and  without  exaggeration  or 
coloring  before  you,  that  you  may  judge  if  I  am  obsti 
nate  in  declining,  I  may  say  in  refusing,  to  go  on  ship 
board  under  these  circumstances,  and  with  a  mind 
distracted  with  reflections  on  the  past,  the  present,  and 
the  probable  future. 

In  a  word  I  may  be  carried  on  board,  where  want 
of  fruit,  of  milk,  of  vegetables, — in  a  word,  of  proper 
attention,  and  of  everything  proper  for  a  sick  person, — 
with  heat  and  calms  on  the  passage,  and  violent 
equinoctial  gales  on  the  coast,  which  are  almost 
certain  at  this  season;  these,  which  I  do  not  color 
too  highly,  must  cut  short  my  voyage  and  prevent  my 
ever  landing  in  America,  although  the  ship  may  go 
safe,  and  to  persons  in  health  it  may  be  supportable. 

But  my  physician  is  in  favor  of  a  voyage.  My 
lord,  when  a  physician  has  a  patient  whose  disorder 
baffles  him,  he  recommends  to  him  a  short  voyage 
to  sea  or  the  watering  places ;  or  in  short  anywhere  to 
get  him  out  of  the  way,  and  off  his  hands.  I  have 
been  to  sea  enough  to  know  what  it  is  in  general,  and 
how  it  affects  me,  even  when  in  full  health  and  with  a 
mind  at  ease.  I  rely  more  on  my  friend  Bancroft's 
opinion  than  on  that  of  almost  any  physician.  He 
knows  my  habits  and  temper,  he  has  given  up  all 


Fresh  Hopes  Die  Away          247 

thoughts  of  my  embarking  in  my  present  state,  and 
until  I  can  recover  some  degree  of  strength  propor 
tionate  to  the  voyage. 

Irwin  does  not  think  himself  authorized  to  assist 
me  out  of  your  lordship's  bounty  in  any  way  but  in 
procuring  passage  to  America.  My  wish  is  to  remove 
to  some  healthy  spot  in  the  country  for  a  few  weeks, 
until  I  get  stronger,  and  able  to  bear  the  fatigue  of  the 
voyage. 

Deane  had  written  to  his  brother  to  lend  him  a 
little  money  by  which  he  hoped  to  go  into  the 
country,  and  he  adds  to  Lord  Suffield: 

I  may  hear  from  my  brother ;  but  if  there  is  no  alter 
native  left  me  but  to  embark  in  my  present  situation, 
or  to  suffer  the  last  extremity  here,  my  case  is  indeed 
a  hard  one.  I  have  said  perhaps  too  much,  and  I  hope 
your  lordship  will  not  take  it  amiss  when  you  reflect 
on  my  present  distresses  both  of  body  and  mind. 
Those  of  the  former  have  been  hard  indeed,  and  those 
of  the  latter  are  such  as  I  cannot  describe ;  they  push 
me  at  times  to  the  verge  of  absolute  distraction. 

It  is  evident  that  Deane  obtained  help  some 
where,  for  ten  days  after  the  letter  to  Lord  Suffield, 
Edward  Bancroft  wrote  to  J.  T.  Townsend  that 
he  had  procured  the  original  drafts  of  Deane's 
observations  on  the  canal,  and  inclosed  them, 
and  he  adds  that  it  was  Deane's  intention  to  go 
to  Champlain  that  summer,  if  his  observations 
were  honored  with  Lord  Sydney's  approval.  The 


248  Silas  Deane 

good  doctor  says:  "I  fear  his  health  will  not 
allow  his  venturing  this  season.  He  is  going  a 
little  way  out  of  town. " 

On  August  io,:  1778,  Deane  wrote  his  brother 
Barnabas  in  Hartford  that  he  had  been  confined 
to  his  chamber  in  London  most  of  the  time  since 
December  by  complications  occasioned  in  part  and 
largely  increased  by  circumstances  which  at  times 
almost  unhinged  his  mind.  He  said  that  the 
assistance  of  a  few  friends  had  kept  him  from  per 
ishing,  and  that  for  a  great  part  of  the  time  he  had 
scarcely  been  able  to  recollect  one  day  what  had 
passed  on  the  preceding,  and  while  in  that  state 
he  had  been  plundered  of  clothes  and  valuable 
papers;  that  his  health  was  much  improved  and 
that  he  should  hope  soon  to  undertake  something 
for  his  future  support,  so  that  he  would  not  be 
compelled  to  burden  his  friends. 

His  illness  had  seemed  to  destroy  all  prospects  of 
business,  and  he  did  not  expect  it  to  return.  His 
losses  through  his  brother  Simeon  and  the  bank 
ruptcy  of  M.  Chaumont  had  ruined  him  beyond 
recovery;  he  nerved  himself  a  little  to  say:  "I 
cannot  bear  to  go  farther  in  the  retrospect;  I  will 
try  to  look  forward." 

Then  comes  another  shadow  across  the  page,  as 
he  says: 


Fresh  Hopes  Die  Away          249 

The  account  of  my  son  distresses  me  extremely. 
Should  he  be  mad  enough  to  come  over  here,  I  see 
nothing  to  prevent  his  absolutely  perishing  from 
want,  as  I  am  supported  by  the  kindness,  or  I  may 
say  charity,  of  friends,  which  I  have  no  right  to  expect 
the  continuance  of  to  myself,  much  less  that  it 
should  be  extended  to  him. 


His  son  did  not  return  to  England,  and  Lord 
Dorchester  and  Lord  Sydney  gave  their  influence 
in  favor  of  the  canal,  and,  in  the  autumn  of  1788, 
something  of  promise  began  to  open,  and  the  dis 
couraged  man  could  write,  "This  is  on  the  whole 
the  most  promising  object  before  me. " 

Then  came  the  gloom,  to  which  he  was  accus 
tomed,  as  he  says:  "But,  alas,  without  the  enjoy 
ment  of  health,  or  the  means  for  even  a  present  sub 
sistence,  what  can  I  depend  on  ?  What  can  I  do  ?  " 

On  November  10,  1788,  in  a  letter  to  his  brother 
Barnabas,  he  said  he  had  not  written  over  three 
letters  in  twelve  months,  and  that  for  a  still  longer 
period  his  health  and  distress  of  mind  had  beggared 
description,  and  without  the  least  relief.  A  year 
before,  he  had  caught  a  violent  cold,  which  fell 
on  his  limbs  which  became  palsied,  so  that  he 
could  scarcely  help  himself,  but  he  had  so  far 
recovered  that  he  hoped  in  the  spring  to  set  sail 
for  America. 


250  Silas  Deane 

The  past  was  still  haunting  him,  as  he  writes: 
"I  almost  wish  I  could  annihilate  the  power  of 
recollection;  but  if  past  errors  and  misfortunes 
were  to  make  us  wise  in  the  future,  I  ought  to  be 
one  of  the  wisest  of  men  for  the  rest  of  my  life. " 

He  says  that  previous  to  his  illness  he  had 
formed  a  plan  for  going  into  business  in  England, 
but  that  prospect  was  gone,  and  the  Champlain 
canal  was  his  only  hope.  "To  this,"  he  writes, 
"my  whole  attention  is  turned  at  present,  'but 
the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty. ' ' 

The  winter  was  cold,  the  severest  in  fifty  years, 
Deane' s  health  delicate,  the  political  situation  in 
England  doubtful,  but  the  spring  brought  new 
hope,  and  while  there  was  delay,  plans  slowly 
matured,  and  the  exile  gladly  turned  his  eyes 
toward  America. 

A  melancholy  interest  gathers  around  the  fact 
that  on  June  25,  1789,  Deane  wrote  three  letters 
to  prominent  Americans,  making  a  last  plea  for 
justice  at  the  hands  of  Congress. 

He  wrote  Jeremiah  Wadsworth  that  he  had 
long  since  ceased  to  expect  the  balance  due  him; 
but  he  desired  that  it  might  be  fully  known  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  public,  and  especially  of  his 
friends  and  family,  whether  or  not  he  merited  the 
treatment  he  had  met  or  any  part  of  it. 


Fresh  Hopes  Die  Away          251 

He  wrote  to  George  Washington  that  for  more 
than  ten  years  he  had  sought  the  settlement  of 
his  accounts,  but  with  the  new  system  of  govern 
ment  he  was  making  one  more  appeal.  He  adds: 
"Though  reduced  to  the  extremes  of  poverty  and 
to  an  infirm  and  precarious  state  of  health  by  what 
I  have  suffered,  I  still  regard  the  past  as  of  little 
consequence  if  I  can  obtain  what  I  have  long 
requested. " 

And  to  his  honored  friend,  John  Jay,  after  a    ' 
long  delay,  Deane  wrote,  that  he  was  encouraged 
to  send  him  one  more  letter  because  he  heard  that 
Jay  had  inquired  for  him  and  expressed  a  wish  for 
his  return.     Deane  says: 

This  leads  me  to  hope  that  the  surmises  and 
suggestions  professed  against  me,  having  never  in  the 
remotest  degree  been  substantiated,  may  be  dissi 
pated,  and  that  any  error  in  judgment,  which  is  the 
utmost  any  one  can  charge  me  with,  is  fully  expiated 
by  what  I  have  suffered. 

After  speaking  of  the  charge  of  default,  which 
for  ten  years  he  had  tried  to  bring  to  trial,  he 
urges  the  jurist  to  use  his  influence  with  the  new 
administration  to  have  the  case  taken  up  and 
decided;  not  because  Deane  expected  any  pe 
cuniary  return,  but  for  the  sake  of  his  family,  and 


252  Silas  Deane 

especially  of  his  son,  he  wished  to  have  the  cloud 
removed  from  his  name. 

On  June  29,  1789,  Deane  wrote  William  S. 
Johnson  urging  the  plea,  the  valedictory  appeal 
near  the  close  of  the  years  of  misery.  He  says: 

If  I  have  in  any  instance  betrayed,  or  been  un 
faithful  in,  the  trust  reposed  in  me  by  my  country,  let 
it  be  made  to  appear.  Justice  to  the  public  calls  for  it 
as  well  as  to  the  individual.  I  once  more  present  my 
case  before  the  tribunal  of  my  country  for  a  fair  and 
full  examination.  I  have  been  so  long  habituated  to 
poverty,  that  I  can  bear  it,  however  reluctantly,  but 
injustice  to  my  character  is  unsupportable. 

By  the  generosity  of  a  friend  in  Boston,  it  was  ar 
ranged  that  Deane  should  bid  good-by  to  the  scenes 
of  isolation  and  misery  in  England  and  sail  for 
America  in  the  Boston  packet  with  Captain  Davis. 
On  Tuesday,  September  22,  1789,  Deane  drove 
as  far  as  Gravesend  with  the  captain,  and  the  two 
spent  the  night  there ;  in  the  morning  they  drove  to 
Deal  and  embarked,  and  the  voyage  began.  At  ten 
o'clock,  while  walking  the  quarter-deck  with  the 
captain,  Deane  said  he  did  not  feel  well;  the  com- 
>  plaint  increasing,  he  was  taken  to  the  cabin,  where 
he  almost  immediately  became  speechless,  and 
continued  so  until  his  death,  which  occurred  at 

two  in  the  afternoon. 

T  '  t-  -> 


Fresh  Hopes  Die  Away          253 

The  death  was  probably  due  to  a  complication 
of  disorders,  the  climax  of  a  long  period  of  illness 
and  weakness,  and  the  vessel  returned  at  once  to 
Deal  for  the  burial  of  the  disappointed  man.  The 
record  of  interment,  which  is  dated  September  26, 
1789,  is  as  follows: 

Silas  Deane  Esquire.  He  was  Deputy  of  the  State 
of  Connecticut  to  the  first  and  second  American  Con 
gress;  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States  of  America  to  the  Court  of  France  in  1777, 
and  1778,  died  in  the  Downs  on  his  passage  from 
London  to  America.  Register  of  Burials  for  the 
Parish  of  Deal. 

There  is  no  gravestone  but  the  interment  is  be 
lieved  to  have  been  in  the  St.  George's  Church 
yard. 

Thus  ended  Deane' s  long  course  of  trial  and  mis 
fortune,  as  he  was  setting  out  upon  an  expedition 
which  gave  promise  of  financial  profit  and  of  a 
renewal  in  some  degree  of  the  prosperity  which 
his  superior  business  capacity  and  address  had  won 
for  him  in  the  earlier  years.  "Time,  the  nurse 
and  breeder  of  all  good, "  brought  him  little  relief. 

He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty- two;  the  Boston 
packet  went  on  without  him,  leaving  Silas  Deane, 
disappointed  for  the  last  time. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  VINDICATION 

\V  7E  are  now  far  enough  removed  from  the 
stormy  scenes  of  prejudice  and  animosity, 
in  which  Deane's  lot  was  cast,  to  judge  calmly  and 
impartially  the  career  and  the  character,  and 
pronounce  an  opinion  which  may  have  some 
approach  to  fairness. 

Soon  after  his  death  on  the  merchant  ship  a  few 
miles  from  Deal,  there  appeared  in  The  Gentle 
man's  Magazine,  the  following  notice : 

Died  in  the  Downs,  September  23,  on  board  the 
Boston  packet,  in  his  fifty-third  year,  after  four  hours' 
illness,  Silas  Deane,  a  native  of  Groton,  Conn.,  member 
of  the  first  and  second  Congresses,  distinguished  for 
his  literary  merits,  mercantile  knowledge,  policy,  and 
great  zeal  for  liberty,  and  sequently,  in  1776,  ap- 
pointed  Ambassador  by  Congress  to  the  Court  of 
France. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Paris  he  proved  his  ability 
by  convincing  the  Court  of  France  that  their  interest 
would  be  promoted  by  giving  supplies  to  the  American 
revolt.  He  purchased  nearly  half  a  million  livres' 
worth,  depending  on  promises;  recalled,  he  refused 

254 


Vindication  255 

all  kinds  of  payment,  because  not  clear  of  suspicion  of 
being  not  friendly  to  the  independence  of  America. 

This  political  maneuver  and  Congressional  mode 
of  discharging  fair  and  honest  debts  by  suspicions  and 
accusations  compelled  Mr.  Deane  to  leave  France 
on  a  sudden,  and  finally  take  refuge  in  England, 
where  he  received  generous  and  friendly  support, 
while  his  eminent  services  and  just  demands  on  Con 
gress  were  disregarded  by  his  fellow-patriots  in  France. 

Thus  lived  and  died  his  excellency  Silas  Deane, 
whose  name  is  rendered  immortal  in  the  calender  of 
policy  by  having  ruined  himself  and  family,  and  de 
ranged  France  ar  d  America,  with  the  charming  words, 
Liberty,  Constitution,  and  Rights. 

The  epicedium  of  Mr.  Deane  may  be  this:  He  was  ' 
second  to  very  few  in  knowledge,  plans,  designs,  and 
execution ;  deficient  only  in  placing  confidence  in  his 
compatriots,  and  doing  them  service,  before  he  had 
got  his  compensation,  of  which  no  well-bred  politician 
was  ever  guilty. 

Newspapers  in  England  and  America  celebrated 
Deane 's  passage  from  a  world 

Of  struggle,  and  temptation,  and  retreat, 

with  scarcely  a  tender  thought,  though  they  said 
that  he  was  an  illustration  of  the  most  remark 
able  versatility  of  fortune  which  has  occurred 
perhaps  within  the  present  century ;  that  he  lived 
in  great  affluence  at  the  Court  of  France,  and 
was  presented  by  Louis  XVI.  with  his  picture 


256  Silas  Deane 

set  with  brilliants,  as  a  mark  of  respect  on 
account  of  his  integrity  and  ability;  but  that 
the  charge  of  embezzlement  led  to  his  exile  in 
Holland,  where  his  situation  was  little  better 
than  starving,  and  afterward  to  life  in  England, 
where  he  would  have  died  of  want,  had  not  a 
gentleman  of  fashion  been  an  eye-witness  that 
he  not  only  wanted  food,  but  a  bed  to  lie  on ;  that 
a  collection  of  about  seventy  pounds  was  made 
for  him.  So  reduced  was  he,  that  though  he  was 
supposed  to  have  embezzled  upwards  of  a  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  he  practically  refuted  the  ma 
levolence  of  his  enemies  by  experiencing  all  the 
horrors  of  the  most  abject  poverty,  dying  on  ship 
board  on  his  way  to  America — his  last  resort.  The 
finishing  touch  of  the  malice  and  falseness  of 
Deane's  enemies  was  given  in  an  article  which  was 
published  in  London  the  next  year  after  his  death. 
It  was  entitled,  "Theodosius,  or  a  Solemn  Ad 
monition  to  Protestant  Dissenters.*'  The  author 
is  supposed  to  have  been  the  Reverend  Philip 
Withers. 

The  narrative  of  this  highly  imaginative  writer 
begins  with  these  words:  "The  last  time  I  saw 
Mr.  Silas  Deane  he  was  on  a  bed  of  sickness  and 
death ;  he  sent  for  me. ' '  Then  the  author  proceeds 
to  relate  a  conversation  which  he  says  passed 


Vindication  257 

between  himself  and  Deane  in  which  the  latter  is 
made  to  "  deny  the  existence  of  the  Deity."  Being 
asked  to  "name  the  wretch"  who  had  infused  into 
his  mind  "such  horrid  blasphemies, "  he  is  said  to 
have  named  Dr.  Priestly:  and  to  have  added, 
"Yes,  Dr.  Priestly  was  my  instructor,  my  savior, 
and  my  God." 

Why  this  writer,  whom  we  refrain  from  char 
acterizing,  did  not  consult  Priestly  before  publish 
ing  a  statement  so  damaging  in  that  age,  can  be  as 
easily  explained  as  can  many  other  things  said 
about  Deane  while  he  was  alive. 

The  refutation  is  complete.  The  alleged  dying 
atheist,  according  to  the  written  account  of  Cap 
tain  Davis,  after  eating  a  hearty  breakfast  with  him 
at  Gravesend,  went  on  shipboard  with  the  captain, 
and  the  vessel  started  immediately;  about  ten 
o'clock  he  became  suddenly  ill,  was  carried  to  the 
cabin,  and  there  for  the  first  and  only  time  was 
laid  upon  his  deathbed,  on  the  bed  on  which  he 
died,  and  there,  almost  immediately,  he  became 
speechless,  and  continued  so  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  about  two  o'clock,  four  hours  later. 
The  captain  mentioned  several  persons  who  were 
with  Deane  while  on  his  deathbed,  all  of  whom 
appear  to  have  belonged  to  the  ship.  None  of 
them  were  able  to  comprehend  any  of  the  in- 

17 


258  Silas  Deane 

articulate  sounds  when  the  dying  man  attempted 
to  speak. 

Dr.  Bancroft  declares  that  this  post-mortem 
slander  was  absolutely  false.  He  wrote :  "I  never 
heard  him  intimate,  much  less  profess,  any  dis 
belief  in  the  Deity.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe 
on  very  good  grounds  that  his  religious  sentiments 
were  exactly  the  same  as  those  he  had  avowed 
in  France  to  several  of  his  friends. " 

We  pass  now  from  that  trying,  feverish  period 
through  the  calmer  years  to  see  what  has  been 
the  judgment  of  the  country  upon  Silas  Deane. 
We  find  abundant  illustration  of  that  quality  in 
human  nature  of  which  Shakespeare  spoke  when 
he  wrote: 


Men's  evil  manners  live  in  brass;  their  virtues 
We  write  in  water. 


It  is  the  fashion  of  some  writers  on  the  men 
and  events  of  the  Revolution  to  speak  disparag 
ingly  of  Deane.  All  admit  his  ability  within 
certain  limits  and  a  measure  of  success  in  his  mis 
sion  to  France,  but  some  give  evidence  of  im 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  man's  life  and  work,  and 
in  some  instances  reveal  an  apparent  willingness 
to  condemn  him  on  hearsay. 

Evidently   these   writers   have   not   read    the 


Vindication  259 

testimony  of  Franklin,  who  was  intimately  as 
sociated  with  him  in  Paris,  as  to  his  integrity, 
energy,  and  success;  or  that  of  Beaumarchais  to 
Deane's  devotion  and  address  which  made  his 
work  indispensable ;  or  that  of  the  austere,  honest, 
if  sometimes  crabbed,  John  Adams,  Deane's  suc 
cessor  as  Commissioner,  who  would  as  soon  falsify 
as  omit  to  read  his  Bible  every  morning,  who 
wrote  in  his  immortal  Diary  in  1778:  "Mr.  Deane 
lived  expensively  and  seems  not  to  have  had  much 
order  in  his  business,  public  or  private;  but  he 
was  active,  diligent,  subtle,  and  successful,  having 
accomplished  the  great  purpose  of  his  mission  to 
advantage. ' ' 

Surely  the  calm,  judicial  intelligence  of  John 
Jay  ought  to  have  some  weight  in  a  matter  of 
this  kind.  Jay  wrote  Deane,  March  28,  1781: 

You  merit  the  thanks,  not  the  reproaches,  of  your 
country.  I  believe  you  innocent  of  the  malversations 
imputed  to  you,  and  I  feel  for  you  the  sympathy  which 
such  an  opinion  must  create  in  every  honest  mind.  In 
this  enlightened  age,  when  the  noise  of  passion  and 
party  shall  have  subsided,  the  voice  of  truth  will  be 
heard  and  attended  to. 

The  opinion  of  Robert  Morris  should  not  be 
overlooked.  He  wrote  in  1781  to  Deane  that  his 
character  had  been  exceedingly  traduced,  and  he 


260  Silas  Deane 

longed  to  see  it  placed  "in  that  respectable  and 
meritorious  point  of  view  which  it  deserves." 

Again,  and  in  1785,  he  wrote:  "From  the  hand 
of  time  alone  can  you  expect  that  the  impression 

. 

against  you  will  be  obliterated;  but  in  the  course 
of  things  a  time  will  come  when  people  will  hear 
and  believe.*' 

The  statement  of  so  honest  and  careful  a  man 
as  Franklin,  given  when  Deane  was  recalled  in 
1778,  should  have  decided  weight.  He  said: 

I  have  no  doubt  that  he  will  be  able  clearly  to  justify 
himself,  but  having  lived  intimately  with  him  more 
than  fifteen  months,  the  greatest  part  of  the  time  in 
the  same  house,  and  a  constant  witness  of  his  public 
conduct,  I  cannot  avoid  giving  this  testimony,  though 
unasked,  that  I  esteem  him  a  faithful,  active,  and 
earnest  minister,  who,  to  my  knowledge,  has  done  in 
various  ways  great  and  important  services  to  his 
country,  whose  interests  I  wish  may  always  by  every 
one  in  her  employ  be  as  much  and  as  efficiently 
promoted. 

Some  of  these  statements  have  been  given  on 
earlier  pages,  but  they  belong  here  also  in  the  sum 
of  the  testimony,  of  which  most  of  the  writers  on 
the  period  under  consideration  seem  ignorant. 

They  are  apparently  ignorant  also  of  the  action 
of  Congress,  fifty -three  years  after  Deane 's  death, 
by  which  the  foolish  rumor  of  embezzlement  was 


Vindication  261 

exploded,    and    his    reputed    claims    for    justice 
acknowledged. 

This  calls  for  a  description  of  the  memorial  of 
the  heirs  of  Deane,  which  was  presented  to  Con 
gress,  January  10,  1835,  and  which  led  to  the 
official  vindication. 

We  have  spoken  of  Deane 's  son  Jesse,  who  was 
with  his  father  in  Europe  and  returned  to  America  , 
in  1783.     He  died  in  1830,  leaving  a  daughter  i 
Philura,   who  married  Horatio  Alden,   and  five  : 
years  after  the  death  of  Jesse  Deane,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Alden  presented  to  Congress  a  memorial  which 
reviewed  the  case  from  the  time  of  Deane's    ap 
pointment  until  his  death,  calling  to  mind  that  his  ' 
reputation,  in  the  judgment  of  Congress,  was  high, 
from  the  fact  that,  in  1775,  he  was  solely  and  ex 
clusively  employed  by  the  Marine  Committee  to 
equip  and  fit  out  a  large  naval  force,  and  that  he 
may  be  called   the   "  Father  of  the   Revolution 
Marine." 

The  memorial  goes  on  to  explain  that  his  mission 
to  France  for  military  supplies  was  successful; 
that  in  March,  1777,  he  was  recalled  "with  all 
possible  dispatch,"  since  "it  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  Congress  at  this  critical  juncture 
be  well  informed  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe, " 
with  no  reference  to  his  accounts,  which  were  de- 


262  Silas  Deane 

manded  on  the  two  audiences  he  had  with  Con 
gress, — the  only  ones  in  fourteen  months,  though 
he  wrote  repeatedly  for  an  opportunity  to  state  his 
case. 

Assured  of  the  appointment  of  an  auditor  by 
Congress,  Deane  returned  to  France,  and  for  more 
than  a  year  was  engaged  with  a  clerk,  at  heavy 
expense.  Joshua  Johnson  declined  to  act  as 
auditor  because  of  the  conditions  imposed,  and 
for  two  years  after  Deane's  dismission  there  was 
no  auditor.  At  length  Barclay  was  appointed, 
but  his  instructions  did  not  cover  Deane's  case. 

After  the  publication  of  the  nine  private  letters 
in  the  Royal  Gazette  Deane  was  proscribed  at 
home  and  abroad.  An  exile  in  Ghent  for  a  year 
and  a  half,  he  lived  in  cheap  lodgings,  seeing  only 
those  he  could  not  avoid. 

On  May  22,  1782,  Congress  appointed  a  com 
missioner  to  settle  all  accounts.  Not  till  then  did 
Barclay  feel  authorized  to  act  on  Deane's  case,  and 
even  then  he  could  not  close  it. 

In  1783,  a  committee  consisting  of  Arthur  Lee, 
McHenry,  and  Gerry,  was  appointed  to  investi 
gate  Deane's  claims.  This  committee  recom 
mended  that  he  be  allowed  his  expenses  from 
March,  1776,  to  January  4,  1778,  and  salary  as 
commissioner,  also  allowance  of  commissions  of 


Vindication  263 

five  per  cent,  to  the  time  of  his  appointment  as 
ambassador. 

Thus  the  right  of  Deane  was  fairly  and  fully 
admitted.  Probably  this  report  never  came  to  his 
attention,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  Congress 
took  action  on  this  report.  In  the  correspondence 
that  followed  between  Deane  and  Barclay  it  was 
made  clear  that  all  questionable  items  must  be 
referred  to  the  immediate  decision  of  Congress, 
which  was  a  practical  denial  of  justice,  and  in 
definite  postponement  of  the  decision. 

On  September  30, 1 784,  Barclay  sent  the  accounts 
to  Robert  Morris,  Superintendent  of  Finance,  who 
referred  them  to  the  president  of  Congress,  but  no 
action  was  taken.  For  nearly  six  years  Deane 
had  sought  settlement:  he  was  poor,  his  credit  as 
a  merchant  ruined,  he  was  driven  to  resort  to 
friends  in  a  manner  his  proud  spirit  disdained,  but 
he  was  determined  never  to  return  to  his  country 
till  his  accounts  were  settled.  Denounced  and 
proscribed,  his  mental  energies  gave  way,  and  from 
1784  he  gave  up  all  hope  of  settlement. 

Four  months  before  his  death  an  effort  was 
made  by  the  government  to  get  possession  of 
Deane's  account  and  letter  book,  to  the  distress  of 
the  owner. 

Congress  had  voted   a  meager   allowance   to 


264  Silas  Deane 

Deane,  which  was  declined  as  wholly  inadequate 
and  unfair;  and  though  Congress  made  good  to 
Arthur  Lee  the  loss  of  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars, 
due  to  depreciation  of  currency,  no  such  offer  was 
made  to  Deane. 

The  memorial  states  that  Franklin's  testimony 
of  December  18,  1783,  to  Deane's  integrity  was  in 
valuable,  and  that  when  Robert  Morris  closed  his 
official  relations  to  the  public  treasury  he  spoke 
of  the  balances  due  Deane  and  a  few  others,  saying : 

It  is  much  lamented  that  these  are  not  paid.  As 
to  Mr.  Deane,  he  stands  in  such  peculiar  circumstances 
that  it  would  be  odious  to  say  anything  in  favor  of 
his  claims,  if  the  citizens  of  America  were  governed 
by  passion  and  caprice,  instead  of  reason  and  re 
flection.  But  they  know  that  whatever  may  have 
been  his  services  and  sufferings,  or  whatever  may  be 
his  follies  and  faults,  neither  can  affect  the  present 
question.  His  claim  of  justice  is  not  mended  by  his 
merits,  nor  curtailed  by  his  crime.  Whether  he  is 
criminal  or  innocent  must  be  decided  on  hereafter  by 
that  unerring  tribunal  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 
But  even  admitting  his  guilt,  it  would  be  folly  to 
justify  it  by  withholding  his  due. 

The  committees  of  Senate  and  House  to  which 
this  memorial  was  referred,  after  several  years  of 
investigation,  reported  favorably,  and,  in  1842, 
Congress  appropriated  thirty-seven  thousand  dol- 


Vindication  265 

lars  to  Deane's  heirs,  on  the  ground  that  the  former 
audit  made  when  Arthur  Lee  was  Commissioner 
of  Accounts  was  "ex  parte,  erroneous,  and  a  gross 
injustice  to  Silas  Deane. " 

Thus,  more  than  half  a  century  after  the  death 
of  Deane,  the  action  of  Congress,  which  Deane 
vainly  sought  for  years,  was  taken,  a  part  of 
the  money  due  him  was  paid  his  heirs,  and  that 
which  he  desired  more  earnestly  than  the  money, 
the  vindication  from  the  charge  of  embezzlement, 
accomplished. 

The  question  now  arises,  what  is  the  verdict 
of  history  as  to  the  work  and  character  of  Deane. 
There  can  be  no  question  about  the  ability,  effi 
ciency,  and  energy  of  the  man.  We  have  ample 
testimony  to  his  effectiveness.  He  was  undoubt 
edly  a  man  who  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Revolution,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  malicious  disparagement  of  Arthur  Lee,  he 
would  stand  to-day  with  Franklin,  Morris,  and 

Jay. 

After  an  interval  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
it  is  time  to  recognize  his  great  services,  and  ac 
knowledge  the  priceless  debt  the  Republic  owes 
Deane  for  his  inestimable  work  for  the  insurgents 
struggling  for  independence. 

The  other  question,  that  of  character,  is  more 


266  Silas  Deane 

difficult,  and  different  minds  will  judge  differently 
the  "intercepted  letters. " 

We  must  set  aside  as  altogether  erroneous  the 
notion  that  Deane  was  guilty  of  treason.  He  did 
become  discouraged,  and  he  wrote  some  private 
letters  when  cast  down,  and  at  a  time  when  news 
from  America  was  peculiarly  discouraging.  He 
failed  of  that  grace 

That  can  translate  the  stubbornness  of  fortune 
Into  so  quiet  and  so  sweet  a  style, 

as  to  be  calm  and  wise  amid  trials  and  disasters. 
But  Silas  Deane  was  never  a  traitor.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  evidence  that  he  was  ever  on  familiar 
terms  with  General  Arnold  while  in  London,  or 
that  he  was  in  the  pay  of  the  British  Ministry. 
Those  who  made  the  charges  were  either  Deane' s 
deadly  enemies  or  men  reckless  with  facts. 

Those  nine  letters,  written  under  a  fearful  strain 
of  disappointment,  poverty,  neglect,  and  calumny, 
were  published  by  Tories  who  knew  how  to  make 
the  most  of  them.  Deane  says  they  changed  them 
to  suit  their  purpose. 

We  wish  he  had  not  written  those  letters.  We 
have  done  some  things  almost  as  foolish,  but  our 
insignificance  has  usually  shielded  us  from  dis 
grace,  and  we  have  had  opportunity  to  profit  by 


Vindication  267 

our  blunders.  Less  happy  was  Deane;  his  mis 
take  was  caught  up  greedily  by  his  enemies  and 
used  to  ornament  and  advertise  the  lies  they  had 
industriously  circulated.  We  cannot  conceive 
of  Olympian  men  like  Washington  or  Franklin 
writing  such  letters,  but  the  Olympians  are  in  a 
select  and  lonely  class.  We  wish  some  things 
could  be  erased  from  the  biographies  of  Moses, 
David,  Elijah,  Luther,  and  Garfield.  We  would 
rather  not  be  judged  by  things  said  and  done  when 
we  were  down-hearted;  and  no  one  with  any 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  or  any  pretense  to 
justice,  would  set  aside  the  valuable  and  devoted 
service  of  years,  and  blot  with  infamy  an  entire 
life,  because  a  man,  hounded  and  conspired  against, 
in  a  moment  of  weakness  lost  his  poise,  and  allowed 
his  pen  to  describe  the  blur  and  confusion  engen 
dered  by  a  mind  almost  distraught  by  suffering 
and  disaster. 

It  requires  no  special  pleading  to  make  out  a 
case  for  Deane.  For  years  he  was  in  a  prison, 
whose  walls  were  a  concrete  of  massive  and  deter 
mined  conspiracy.  Brave  men  as  he  have  grown 
discouraged  under  conditions  trying  as  his.  Elijah 
flung  himself  upon  the  ground  and  longed  for  death ; 
John  the  Baptist  in  the  prison  of  Machserus  ques 
tioned  whether  his  message  was  a  mistake ;  Savona- 


268  Silas  Deane 

rola  dared  to  face  angry  councils,  but  he  wavered 
in  the  prison-cell  of  Florence;  Jerome  of  Prague 
in  the  dungeon  of  Constance  recanted  his  faith, 
then  gathered  courage  and  died  a  martyr;  even 
Luther  was  agitated  by  fantasies  of  incipient 
madness  in  the  castle  of  Wartburg,  and  we  gladly 
throw  a  veil  over  the  serious  blunders  of  his  later 
life. 

There  were  many  who  were  depressed  over  the 
condition  of  the  country,  and  even  after  York- 
town  regretted  the  Revolution,  but  they  were 
more  fortunate  than  Deane.  There  is  a  letter  of 
Israel  Putnam,  written  after  the  war,  in  which  this 
man,  whose  patriotism  and  sincerity  no  one  ques 
tions,  says  that,  in  view  of  the  wretched  condition 
of  business  and  finance,  and  the  many  evils  rising 
on  all  sides,  he  longed  for  the  days  when  the  colo 
nies  were  under  British  rule,  and  if  he  could  have 
looked  forward,  he  would  not  have  entered  the 
war. 

Robert  Morris,  the  financier  of  the  Revolution, 
ruined  himself  and  many  others,  and  spent  months 
in  a  debtor's  prison;  yet  we  do  not  forget  his 
eminent  services  for  his  country. 

Years  of  suffering  from  a  malignity,  and  a  con 
spiracy  as  pitiless  as  determined,  wrought  in 
Deane' s  mind  despair  for  a  country  whose  Con- 


Vindication  269 

gress  could  ignore  plain  justice  in  dealing  with 
him.  The  iron  hand  of  desperation  fell  heavily 
on  a  nature  ungifted  with  dauntless  hopefulness. 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  in  the  security  and  wealth 
of  prosperous  years  to  imagine  the  condition 
of  affairs  when  Deane  wrote  the  fatal  letters. 
America  seemed  at  the  lowest  ebb,  politically, 
financially,  and  in  the  army,  to  the  lonely,  home 
sick  man,  walking  the  streets  of  Paris,  brooding  in 
his  dreary  lodgings,  listening  to  dismal  stories, 
wafted  across  the  sea,  of  faction,  repudiation,  and 
mutinous  soldiers;  pondering  his  own  wrongs,  hav 
ing  long  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  suspicion,  of 
accusation,  covert  and  pronounced;  determined 
not  to  return  to  the  hostility  of  a  country  so 
dominated  by  his  enemies,  where  just  and  friendly 
men  were  perplexed  by  the  stories  ingeniously 
scattered  by  his  shrewd  foes;  unable  to  go  into 
business  in  Paris.  It  is  not  strange  in  conditions 
like  these  that  Deane  should  have  made  a  serious 
mistake. 

Simple  humanity  requires  us  to  bring  the 
quality  of  mercy  to  our  judgment  of  a  man  who 
for  four  years  and  a  half  had  endured  the  de 
pressing  stress  of  suffering  and  disappointment, 
the  continued  assaults  of  malice,  the  unjust  delays, 
the  temptations  of  a  disposition  naturally  de- 


Silas  Deane 


ficient  in  buoyant  optimism,  the  sure  approach 
of  poverty  dreaded  by  a  spirited  man,  the  mental 
anarchy  occasioned  by  worry,  insomnia,  repeated 
attacks  of  misfortune,  and  heart-sickening  dis 
appointments. 

It  is  not  strange  that  Deane  should  take  a 
gloomy  view  of  the  future  of  his  country  in  that 
critical  summer  of  1781  —  dark  enough  to  Washing 
ton  as  we  know  by  history;  a  nightmare  of  a 
summer  to  a  man  like  Deane,  tortured  by  a  sense 
of  personal  wrongs,  and  alarmed  at  the  thought 
of  the  dismal  future  into  which  his  country  seemed 
to  be  plunging. 

It  is  not  strange  that  under  such  conditions 
Deane  should  open  his  heart  to  a  few  friends  in 
letters  strictly  private,  in  which  he  asked  if  some 
method  might  not  be  discovered  to  stop  the 
fearful  war,  while  it  could  be  done  with  honor. 

Think  of  the  career  of  this  man,  —  the  early 
zeal,  devotion,  and  achievements;  the  mission  to 
France  and  its  success  ;  the  hostility  of  powerful 
leaders;  the  paralysis  of  Congress;  the  undertow 
of  disparagement;  the  studied  neglect;  the  var 
nished  falseness;  encroaching,  overwhelming  pov 
erty;  the  newspaper  lies;  hopes  blossoming  then 
fading;  the  death  of  his  wife  and  breaking  up  of 
his  home  ;  the  ill-health  of  his  son  ;  the  stiff  fight 


Vindication  271, 

• 

to  pay  bills  and  keep  up  courage ;  illness  and  death 
under  the  shadow  and  burden;  the  passing  away 
of  the  tortured  Commissioner  from  the  cabin  of  the 
packet,  his  last  hope  slipping  through  his  nerveless 
and  trembling  fingers,  as  his  eyes,  wearied  with 
gazing  across  the  waters  toward  Congress,  glaze 
in  death. 

We,  who  look  through  the  steadying  years  to 
that  scene  of  struggle,  of  pathetic  endeavor,  of 
gathering  sorrows,  of  thr eating  ruin,  see  an  able 
and  honest  man,  a  true  patriot,  a  skillful  and 
effective  executive,  whose  deeds  deserve  the 
gratitude  of  the  Republic;  whose  mistakes  in  a 
world  like  this,  made  under  heavy  strain,  in  the 
deep  gloom  that  just  preceded  the  dawn,  ought 
not  to  overwhelm  with  dire  condemnation  a  man 
who  on  the  whole  was  true  to  his  country. 


INDEX 


Adams,  John,  on  committee 
to  inquire  about  ore,  30; 
Journal  of,  quoted,  31,  154; 
proposal  of,  40;  writes  of 
Franklin,  96;  replaces  Deane, 
137 ;  States  Rights  party,  142 ; 
Holland  refuses,  177;  away 
from  Congress,  188;  31,  146, 

259 

Adams,  Samuel,  on  committee 
to  send  letter  to  Canada,  30; 
a  member  of  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  30;  Lee 
writes  to,  98,  131;  States 
Rights  party,  142;  146,  156 

Albany,  the  British  in,  105;  2 

Alden,  Horatio,  marries  Phi- 
lura  Deane,  261 

Allen,  Col.  Ethan,  captures 
Fort  Ticonteroga,  28 

America,  France  lends  money 
to,  60;  Steuben  goes  to,  84; 
Deane  returns  to,  130;  hard 
times  in,  142;  Deane  leaves, 
158;  Deane  a  martyr  to,  162; 
Deane's  remarks  about,  174; 
Deane  writes  friends  in,  182; 
Deane's  fears  for,  188  ff.; 
weakness  of,  190;  fortunes 
of,  193;  French  army  in,  195; 
Deane  considered  enemy  of, 
198;  the  treaty  with,  226; 
Deane  hopes  to  go  to,  249; 
Deane  starts  for,  252;  news 
papers  in,  255 

American  Revolution,  New  Ma 
terials  on  the,  by  Durand, 
referred  to,  56 

Amphitrite,  The,  carries  arms, 
90;  returns  to  port,  100; 


arrives  at  Portsmouth,  101; 

arrest  of  captain  of,  106;  82, 

226 
Arnold,     Benedict,     interview 

with   Parsons,  28;    Deane's 

name    coupled    with,     180; 

calls  on  Deane,  217;  repulsed 

by  Deane,  217;  195,  203,  266 
Aslop,  236 
Austin,  J.  L.,  in  France,  106; 

sails  for  France,  no 

Bancroft,  Edward,  Deane 
writes  to,  197,  208;  writes 
of  Deane,  202;  writes  Town- 
send,  247;  defends  Deane, 
258;  48,  113,  245 

Barbary,  trade  with,  n 

Barcelona,  handkerchiefs  from, 
10 

Barclay,  Thomas,  Deane  hears 
from,  203;  Deane  writes, 
221;  207,  225,  234,  261,  263 

Bath,  231 

Bayard,  Mr.,  23 

Bay  Colony,  opposition  to 
Stamp  Act  in,  14 

Beaumarchais,  Caron  de,  writes 
of  Deane,  44;  head  of  Rode- 
rique  &  Co.,  53;  writes  Ver- 
gennes,  53;  birth  of,  54; 
Controller  of  the  Pantry,  54; 
marriage  of,  54;  enthusiastic 
in  the  cause  of  America,  56; 
writes  Lee,  56;  writes  Louis 
XVI,  58;  again  writes  Louis, 
59;  as  agent  for  colonies,  60; 
forms  his  company,  6 1 ;  Deane 
sent  to,  6 1 ;  Deane  writes  of, 
61;  writes  Committee  of 


273 


274 


Index 


Beaumarchais,  Caron  de  (Con.} 
Congress,  62;  writes  of  plans 
to  King,  62;  receives  no  re 
ceipt  for  supplies,  64;  begs 
Congress  for  payments,  67; 
writes  his  agent,  67;  Jay 
writes  to,  69;  money  gives 
out,  70;  writes  Congress  of 
ingratitude,  71 ;  flees  to  Ham 
burg,  71;  Congress  finally 
settles  debt  of,  72;  Deane 
writes  Congress  of,  72; 
Deane  does  business  with, 
73;  Deane  asks  for  supplies 
from,  74,  75;  writes  to  Deane 
75;  Deane  writes  of,  87; 
supplies  furnished  by,  91; 
Vergennes  criticizes,  100; 
guest  of  the  Commissioners, 
in;  and  Lee,  115;  writes 
Deane 's  praises,  125;  sym 
pathizes  with  Deane,  127; 
letter  to  Congress,  128; 
letter  of,  135;  writes  of 
Deane,  171;  writes  Deane, 
178;  writes  of  Deane  to  Mor 
ris,  205;  Dea/ie  writes,  219; 
Deane  quotes,  226;  Deane 
writes,  232;  65,  101,  116, 
119,  121,  I34..259 

Belden,  Capt.,  in  the  General 
Assembly,  18 

Berlin,  Lee  seeks  help  from, 
102;  Court  of,  131,  145 

Bermudas,  Deane  sails  by  way 

of,  43 

"Bird  Cage  Walk,"  245 

Bilboa,  trade  with,  n 

Birmingham,  Deane  in,  234 

Bordeaux,  87;  119,  236 

Boston,  coach  from  New  York 
to,  5 ;  sympathy  for,  18 ;  dele 
gates  from,  23;  Perch  sails 
from,  no;  Port  Bill,  27; 
38 

Boston  packet,  Deane  to  sail 
in,  252 

Boulogne,  64 

Bourbon,  House  of,  Deane 
writes  of,  204 


Brandy  wine,  the  defeat  of,  105 
Brazil,  tobacco  of,  185 
British   Ministry,   Deane  said 

to  be  in  pay  of,  200;  20,  231, 

266 

British  West  Indies,  186 
Broglie,     Comte    de,    see    De 

Broglie 
Brussels,  198 
Buckle,  referred  to,  92 
Buckley,  Jonathan,  8 
Bulkley,    Capt.    John,      runs 

cattle  ship,  n 
Burgesses,  House  of,  19,  27 
Burgoyne,    surrender    of,    39; 

surrender  at  Saratoga  of,  90; 

news  of  surrender  of ,  1 10;  91, 

103,  105,  130,  226 
Burke,  117 

Cambridge,  camp  at,  28 

Canada,  committee  to  send 
letter  to,  30;  91,  186 

Canary  Islands,  slave  markets 
in,  4 

Caribbean  Islands,  cattle  ship 
run  to,  1 1 

Carmichael,  William,  accuses 
Deane,  136;  Nicholson  writes, 
156;  156,  173,  177 

Caron,  father  of  Beaumar 
chais,  54 

Cassandra,  164,  183,  194 

Cato,  94 

Chambly,  244 

Champlain,  Lake,  Deane's 
plan  for,  244;  Deane's  plans 
to  go  to,  247;  250 

Charleston,  blacks  for,  5 

Charybdis,  189 

Chastellux,  confers  with  De 
Grasse,  193 

Chaumont,  Le  Ray  de,  Frank 
lin  visits,  95;  Deane  writes 
to,  210;  216,  248 

Chesapeake,  227 

Chester,  Leonard,  owner  of  a 
"Neager  Maide,"  4;  5 

Chester,  Col.,  16 

Chester,  Captain,  27 


Index 


275 


Choiseul,  Due  de,  Prime  Min 
ister,  57 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  Lord  North 
to,  201 

Clinton,  Gen.,  229 

Collier  Swamp,  a  part  of  the 
town  of  Wethersfield,  7 

Commerce,  Deane's  fears  for 
185  ff.;  Deane's  ideas  about, 

233 

Commissioners,  appointment 
of  three,  92;  call  on  Ver- 
gennes,  100;  debts  of  the, 
104;  go  on  with  contracts, 
105;  no  word  from  the  Court 
to,  105;  sign  treaty,  106,  107; 
object  of,  1 08;  presented  to 
Louis  XVI,  113;  call  on 
Madame  Lafayette,  114; 
dine  with  Vergennes,  114; 
strife  among,  149;  112 

Congress,  Deane  sent  to  first, 
18;  held  in  Philadelphia,  20; 
Deane  sets  forth  for,  21; 
the  first,  meets,  27;  doings  of 
the  first,  28;  the  second,  28; 
Committee  of,  Beaumar- 
chais  writes,  62;  perplexed 
by  Lee's  lies,  65;  writes  to 
Vergennes,  68;  Deane  writes 
to,  70;  Committee  of,  Deane 
writes  to,  74;  Lee's  corre 
spondence  with,  115;  Deane 
reports  to,  133;  Deane  at 
tends,  135;  Deane  writes  to, 
139;  hard  up  for  money,  142; 
for  and  against  Deane,  144; 
Deane  writes,  155;  dis 
charges  Deane,  157;  Deane 
writes,  158;  hostility  to 
Deane  of,  159;  ruins  credit 
in  Europe,  166;  Deane 
writes  to,  175;  Deane  writes 
of,  183;  Deane  speaks  of.  1 88; 
reduces  currency,  189;  hos 
tility  of,  229;  Lee  writes  to, 
241 ;  no  justice  for  Deane  in, 
242;  Deane's  last  plea  to, 
250;  Deane's  heirs'  memorial 
to,  26 1 ;  finally  settles  Deane's 


case,  262;  pays  debt  to 
Deane's  heirs,  264;  35,  147, 
161,  165,  170,  179,  187,  222, 
224,  227,  228,  238,  264 

Connecticut,  Oldham  ascends 
the,  i;  tries  to  stop  impor 
tation,  16;  merchants  of, 
against  Newport,  18;  Horse 
Guard  of,  91;  hostilities  of 
Pennsylvania  and,  190; 
Deane's  advice  to,  215;  26 

Connecticut  Assembly,  votes 
a  committee  of  nine,  19 

Connecticut  Courant,  The, 
weekly  paper,  5 

Connecticut  Gazette,  item  from, 
109 

Connecticut,  Governor  of,  com 
plains  to  British  Secretary, 
20 

Controller  of  the  Pantry  of  the 
King's  Household,  54 

Constance,  Dungeon  of,  re 
ferred  to,  268 

Constitution  of  United  States, 

H 

Cornwallis,  surrender  of,  39; 
180,  193, 229 

Correspondence,  Committee  of, 
founding  of,  19;  Deane's 
work  on,  21;  Deane  writes 
to,  50 

Cotton,  reaction  against,  13 

Coudray,  M.  de,  furious  at 
Beaumarchais,  66;  Deane 
writes  of,  74;  Deane  signs 
agreement  with,  76;  a  great 
disappointment  to  Deane,  77 ; 
makes  trouble  in  America, 
77;  death  of,  78;  75,  91 

Creasy,  referred  to,  no 

Crown  Point,  2,  105 

Cuba,  tobacco  of,  185 

Dartmouth,  Earl  of,  British 
Secretary  of  State,  20 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  99 

Davis,  Capt.,  Deane  to  sail 
with,  252;  tells  of  Deane's 
death,  257 


Index 


David,  referred  to,  267 

De  Broglie,  Comte,  Deane 
writes  of,  78,  79;  De  Kalb 
writes  to,  83;  83,  91 

D'Estaing,  134,  156,  158,  161 

De  Grasse,  Admiral,  French 
fleet  in  command  of,  39;  on 
way  to  America,  180;  at 
Yorktown,  191;  193,  228 

De  Kalb,  pleads  for  De  Bro 
glie,  79;  goes  to  America,  82; 
embarks  with  Lafayette,  83; 
Baron,  Deane  speaks  of,  88; 

9i»  134 

De  Lomenie,  referred  to,  66; 
63,  107 

De  Rochambeau,  Count,  Mor 
ris  borrows  from,  40 

De  Segur,  Comte,  referred  to, 

94 

Deal,  Deane 's  grave  in,  181; 

254 

Deane,  Barnabas,  letters  to, 
from  Silas,  142,  164,  173, 
179,  180,  194,  248,  249; 
Silas  writes  of  illness  to,  193; 
writes  Jacob  Sebor,  196; 
Silas  writes  of  intercepted 
letters  to,  208;  Silas  writes 
of  son  to,  216;  Silas  has  to 
beg  of,  242 

Deane,  Elizabeth,  death  of, 
109 

Deane,  Jesse,  birth  of,  3;  takes 
leave  of  his  father,  42 ;  father 
writes  of,  166;  illness  of,  216; 
messenger  for  his  father, 
221;  death  of,  261 

Deane,  Philura,  granddaughter 
of  Silas,  261 

Deane,  Silas,  starts  business 
in  Wethersfield,  2;  birth  and 
early  life  of,  3;  marriage  of. 
3;  becomes  well  known,  3; 
birth  of  only  child  of,  3; 
death  of  wife  and  remarriage 
of,  3;  a  prominent  church 
man,^;  early  letters  of,  6; 
food  in  time  of,  10;  the  store 
of,  10;  interest  in  political 


events,  14;  on  committee  to 
stop  importation  of  goods, 
17;  signs  circular,  18 ;  contrib 
utes  to  people  of  Boston, 
18;  a  member  of  the  General 
Assembly,  18;  to  receive 
money  for  buoys  and  sig 
nals,  19;  secretary  of  Com 
mittee  of  Correspondence, 
19;  on  committee  concerning 
western  lands,  19;  one  of  six 
to  confer  with  upper  house, 
20;  sent  to  Philadelphia 
to  Continental  Congress, 
20;  sent  to  Philadelphia  to 
represent  Connecticut,  21; 
writes  to  Governor  Trum- 
bull,  21 ;  leaves  Wethers- 
field  for  Congress,  21;  the 
escort  of,  22;  arrival  in 
New  York  of,  22;  letters  to 
his  wife  from,  23  ff.;  is 
pleased  with  other  delegates, 
25;  proud  to  represent  Con 
necticut,  26;  writings  of,  27; 
elected  to  second  Congress, 
28;  raises  money  for  taking 
of  Fort  Ticonteroga,  28;  is 
put  on  many  important  com 
mittees,  29;  makes  rules  for 
Continental  navy,  29;  mem 
ber  of  the  Committee  of 
Secrecy,  29;  chairman  of 
Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  30;  appointed  to 
send  letter  to  Canada,  30; 
appointed  to  make  rules 
and  drafts  for  army,  30; 
on  committee  for  inquiries 
about  ore,  30 ;  on  committee 
to  import  arms  and  ammu 
nition,  30;  on  committee  for 
provisions  for  army,  30; 
debates  taken  part  in  by,  31 ; 
his  acquaintance  with  George 
Washington,  32;  letters  to 
his  wife,  32  et  seq.;  the 
valedictory  of,  34,  35;  failure 
to  election  for  third  term  at 
Congress,  35;  letter  to  his 


Index 


277 


Deane,  Silas  (Continued) 
wife,  36;  goes  to  New  York 
to  buy  a  ship,  36;  last  letter 
to  wife  from  Congress,  37; 
explains  making  of  guns  to 
committee,  38;  ammunition 
sent  from  France  by,  39; 
chosen  to  go  to  France  to 
ask  for  help,  41;  letter  to 
wife,  before  sailing,  43;  jour 
ney  to  France  of,  43,  44; 
advice  from  the  committee 
to,  44  ff.;  instructions  and 
advice  from  the  committee 
to,  44  ff.;  has  interview  with 
M.  Vergennes,  minister  of 
French  affairs,  ^9;  sends 
letter  to  Committee  of  Cor 
respondence,  50,  51 ;  waits  on 
M.  Dubourg,  52;  is  success 
ful  in  his  mission  to  France, 
53;  letter  from,  61;  Arthur  j 
Lee  enraged  against,  63; 
Lee  tells  many  lies  about, 
65;  seeks  money  to  settle 
Beaumarchais'  claims,  70; 
writes  to  Congress,  70;  letter 
to  Congress,  72;  letter  to 
Committee  of  Congress  from, 
74;  signs  agreement  with 
General  Coudray,  76;  writes 
to  Committee  of  Secret 
Correspondence,  78 ;  writes 
committee  concerning  Comte 
de  Broglie,  79;  much  per 
plexed  at  not  hearing  from 
Congress,  80;  writes  commit 
tee  of  Lafayette,  *8 4;  sends 
Baron  Steuben  to  America, 
84;  writes  to  a  French  firm, 
85;  writes  Secret  Committee 
of  uneasiness,  86;  writes 
committee,  87;  writes  to 
committee  of  ammunition 
sent,  88;  Arthur  Lee  ap 
pointed  to  serve  with,  89; 
gives  good  results  as  com 
missioner,  91;  position  in 
France  of,  92;  writes  of 
Franklin's  arrival  in  Paris 


93;  with  Franklin  at  Passy, 
97;  Lee  recommends  sending 
to  Holland  of,  98;  writes,  99; 
and  Arthur  Lee,  99,  100; 
misfortunes  of,  100,  101; 
buys  and  forwards  supplies, 
102;  goes  to  Fontainebleau 
for  money,  103;  gets  the 
money,  104;  writes,  106; 
signs  treaty  at  Passy,  107; 
tries  to  secure  loan  from 
Holland,  108;  recalled  to 
America,  108;  writes  Dumas, 
109;  death  of  wife  of,  109; 
calls  on  Vergennes,  112;  ur 
ges  strong  squadron,  113; 
urges  declaration  of  treaties 
to  Court  of  London,  113; 
goes  to  Louis  XVI,  113;  calls 
on  Madame  de  Lafayette, 
114;  dines  with  M.  Ver 
gennes,  114;  starts  for  the 
coast,  114;  Lee's  efforts  to 
get  him  into  trouble,  115; 
troubles  between  Lee  and, 
117  ff. ;  wrrites  to  Vergennes, 
118;  bearer  of  a  letter  from 
Franklin  to  Congress,  124; 
Beaumarchais  writes  to  Con 
gress  of,  125;  friends  offer 
sympathy  on  his  recall,  127 
ff.;  receives  gold  box,  129; 
reaches  Philadelphia,  133; 
reaches  Delaware  Bay,  134; 
welcomed  by  friends,  135; 
goes  to  Congress,  to  report, 
135;  accusations  against,  by 
Izard,  136;  hears  of  conspir 
acy  against  him,  137;  again 
writes  Congress,  137;  Izard's 
letter  complaining  of,  138; 
replies  to  charges,  138  ff.; 
goes  before  Congress,  140  ff.; 
people  for  and  against,  144; 
speech  in  Philadelphia  by, 
144  ff. ;  no  attempts  made  by 
Congress  to  clear,  147;  card 
in  Packet  by,  148;  profitless 
discussion  by,  149;  replies 
to  some  of  Lee's  charges, 


278 


Index 


Deane,  Silas  (Continued] 

151;  writes  to  Congress, 
155;  sends  a  memorial  to 
Congress,  157;  leaves  for 
France,  158;  writes  of  Phila 
delphia,  158;  in  France 
again,  160;  unsuccessful  at 
tempt  to  clear  his  name,  161 ; 
Morris  writes  about,  160  ff.; 
writes  to  Joseph  Webb,  164; 
outline  of  case  of,  164,  165; 
receives  letter  from  Morris, 
165;  still  in  good  standing  in 
France,  166;  depreciation  of 
>roperty  of,  168;  letter  from 
fay  to,  168;  writes  to  John 
l  Jones,  171;  letter  to 
Vergennes  concerning,  171; 
receives  letter  from  John 
Jay,  173;  writes  to  Congress, 
175;  receives  letter  from 
Morris,  176;  sends  account 
to  Philadelphia,  177;  letter 
to,  from  Beaumarchais,  178, 
179;  writes  to  James  Wilson, 
1 80;  writes  to  Benj.  Tall- 
madge,  181 ;  writes  to  friends 
in  America,  182;  writes  to 
Col.  Duer,  183;  letters  of, 
taken  by  British  and  pub 
lished,  183;  worried  about 
our  commerce,  185;  writes 
to  J.  Wadsworth,  187; 
writes  to  General  Parsons, 
1 88;  writes  to  Charles  Thom 
son,  1 88;  fears  for  his 
country,  189;  writes  to 
James  Wilson,  190;  writes 
to  Jesse  Root,  190;  explains 
change  of  opinion,  190; 
broods  over  independency  of 
America,  190;  writes  Tall- 
madge,  191;  writes  to  Gen. 
Parsons,  191;  writes  James 
Wilson,  194;  complains  to 
Jay  of  newspapers,  194; 
fears  America  will  suffer 
from  French  army,  195; 
hears  his  letters  have  been 
published,  195;  writes  to 


Trumbull,  195;  Jay  warned 
against,  196;  letter  from 
Wadsworth  to,  196;  writes 
Edward  Bancroft,  197;  in 
terviews  with  Elkanah  Wat 
son,  198;  views  about,  199; 
a  plea  for  him,  200;  letter 
from  King  George  about, 
200,  201 ;  thought  in  pay  of 
British,  201;  enemies  enjoy 
his  intercepted  letters,  202; 
Tallmadge  writes  to,  203; 
writes  of  his  illness,  203; 
Franklin  writes  concerning, 
203,  204;  writes  concerning 
Arnold,  204,  205;  newspaper 
abuses  of,  206;  writes  of  his 
poverty,  207;  letters  to 
brothers  intercepted,  208; 
writes  to  Bancroft,  208; 
letter  from  Jay  to,  209,  210; 
writes  to  M.  Chaumont, 
210;  replies  to  Jay's  letter, 
21 1 ;  story  of  his  exile  in 
Ghent,  213;  advises  law 
makers  of  Connecticut,  215; 
writes  James  Wilson,  216; 
unhappy  experiences  in 
London,  217;  studies  ma 
chines,  221 ;  tries  to  see  Jay, 
221;  writes  to  Thomas  Bar 
clay,  221;  sends  issue  to 
people  of  United  States, 
221  ff.;  Isone  does  not  help 
him  with  people,  229;  corre 
spondence  with  Jay,  229  ff. ; 
commercial  charges  against, 
23 1 ;  accused  of  defraud 
ing  the  Webbs,  231;  tours 
among  manufacturing  towns, 
233;  charges  made  by  Henry 
Laurens  against,  234;  answer, 
Laurens  against,  234;  an 
swers  Laurens's  charges,  235 ; 
received  by  Laurens,  235; 
finds  Laurens  is  in  conspir 
acy  against,  235;  writes  of 
Laurens,  237;  calls  on  Lau 
rens,  238;  Izard's  letter 
about,  238;  Laurens  asks  his 


Index 


279 


Deane,  Silas  (Continued) 
advice,  239;  letter  from 
Morris  to,  241;  has  to  beg 
money  from  brother,  242; 
gives  up  hope  of  receiving 
justice,  242;  writes  stepson 
S.  B.  Webb,  244;  plans 
navigation  canal,  244;  writes 
Lord  Suffield  of  his  illness, 
245  ff. ;  asks  for  money  to  go 
away,  247;  writes  Wads- 
worth,  250;  writes  George 
Washington,  251;  writes 
William  S.  Johnson,  252; 
embarks  for  America,  252; 
death  of,  252;  burial  notice 
of,  253;  notice  in  Gentleman's 
Magazine  about,  254;  article 
by  Reverend  Withers,  256; 
Jay's  letter  to,  259;  Morris's 
letter  to,  259,  260;  vindica 
tion  by  Congress  of,  260; 
memorial  of,  given  to  Con 
gress,  261 ;  full  description  of 
troubles  given  to  Congress, 
261  ff.;  money  belonging  to, 
paid  to  heirs  of,  264;  posi 
tion  in  history  of,  265  ff.; 
writes  to  brother  Simeon, 
166,  172,  177,  188,  215,  220, 
232 ;  writes  to  John  Jay,  167, 
168,  174,  177,  180,  230,  251; 
writes  to  Robert  Morris,  88, 
183,  191;  writes  to  brother 
Barnabas,  142,  164,  173, 
179,  180,  193,  194,  216,  248, 
249;  writes  Franklin,  218, 
219,  221;  letter  to  Beau- 
marchais,  75,  219;  8,  71,  73, 
82,  96,  102,  175 

Deane,  Simeon,  letters  to, 
from  Silas,  166,  172,  177, 
188,  215,  220,  232;  248 

Declaration  of  Independence, 
73,  86,  228 

Deerfield,  2 

Delaware  Bay,  fleet  to,  113; 
Deane  reaches,  134 

Dickinson,  John,  31,  130,  138, 
189 


Doniel,  M.,  108 

Dorchester,  Lord,  Governor 
of  Quebec,  244;  approves 
Deane's  plans,  249 

Duane,  Deane's  name  coupled 
with,  1 80;  195 

Dubourg,  M.,  Deane  carries 
letter  to,  44,  52 ;  willingness 
to  help  America,  52;  indis 
creet  talking  done  by,  53 

Duche",  Reverend  Mr.,  prayer 
by,  27 

Duer,  Col.  William,  friend  of 
Lee,  12 1 ;  Deane's  letter  to, 
183;  156,  237 

Dumas,  C.  W.  F.,  Deane 
writes,  109 

Dumas,  M.,  agent  of  the  col 
onies  in  Holland,  48 

Dunkirk,  119 

Durand,  writes  of  Beaumar- 
chais  and  Lee,  56;  referred 
to,  107; 

Durkee,  head  of  force,  15 

Dyer,  Eliphalet,  a  delegate 
for  Connecticut,  21;  joins 
Deane,  22 ;  elected  to  second 
Congress,  28;  37 

Edinburgh,  Lee  in,  97 

Elijah,  referred  to,  267 

England,  trade  with,  n;  at 
war  with  Holland,  172;  in 
crease  of  navy,  188;  strength 
of,  190;  Deane  travels  in, 
234;  political  situation  in, 
250;  newspapers  in,  255;  88, 
191 

English  Ministry,  Deane  and, 
244 

Eton,  Lee  in,  97 

Europe,  106 

Fabius,  94 

Faubourg  du  Temple,  64 

Fier  Roderique,  a  man-of-war, 

70 

Figaro,  Le  Mariage  de,  54 
Finances  of  the  Revolution,  by 

Sumner,  161 


280 


Index 


Fitch,  Geo.,  protects  Ingersoll, 

15 

Flamand,  The,  sailing  of,  90 

Florence,  268 

Florida,  186 

Folger,  Captain,  235 

Fox,  Charles  James,  speaks  of 
treaty,  107;  146,  212 

Fontainebleau,  Deane  goes  to, 
103 

France,  arms  sent  from,  39; 
mission  of  Deane  to,  40; 
Congress  looks  for  help  from, 
41;  Deane  offers  commerce 
to,  45;  Turgot  against  help 
ing  America,  57;  benefits  to, 
through  colonies'  freedom, 
58;  lends  money  to,  60; 
receives  no  announcement  of 
Declaration  of  Independence, 
86;  scientific  activity  in,  92; 
Austin  arrives  in,  no; 
Court  of,  131;  Deane  returns 
to,  1 60;  grows  wary,  190; 
Deane  considered  enemy  of, 
198;  Deane's  mission  to, 
258;  47,  105,  172,  191 

Francy,  M.,  sent  to  America, 
67 

Franklin,  on  committee  to 
inquire  about  ore,  30;  opposes 
asking  for  help,  41 ;  sends 
Deane  to  France,  41,  42; 
sends  letters  by  Deane,  44; 
friendship  for  M.  Dubourg, 
52;  letters  to,  from  Deane, 
61,  204,  218,  221;  insists  on 
payment  of  notes,  70;  writes 
to  Lovell,  76;  opposed  to 
Steuben,  84;  Deane's  work 
with,  89;  in  Paris,  93; 
writes  daughter,  96;  meets 
Austin,  no;  presented  to 
Louis  XVI,  113;  accounts 
given  to,  114;  Lee  writes  of, 
115;  joins  Deane,  118;  Lee's 
charges  against,  123;  writes 
Congress  of  Deane,  124; 
Lee  writes  of,  131;  letter  of, 
135;  National  party,  142; 


report  of,  is  confirmed,  144; 
Lovell  writes  to,  150;  Deane 
quotes,  152;  writes  to  Lee, 
154;  Deane  goes  to,  158; 
Deane  returns  to,  158;  Mor 
ris  writes  to,  162;  away  from 
Congress,  188;  writes  of 
Deane  to  Livingston,  203; 
writes  of  Deane  to  Morris, 
204;  certificate  of,  206; 
writes  Lord  Howe,  228;  Iz- 
ard  writes  of,  238;  testimony 
of  Deane  by,  259;  35,  66,  92, 
102,  113,  130,  134,  140,  143, 
156,  160,  161,  165,  184,  191, 

222,  223,  26O,  265,  267 

Frederick  the  Great,  Steuben 
under,  84;  Franklin  com 
pared  to,  96 

French  West  India  Islands,  86 

Garfield,  267 

Gates,    General,    bears    letter 

from  Deane,  33 
General  Assembly,  18 
Gentleman's     Magazine,     The, 

Deane's     death    notice     in, 

254 

George,  King,  letter  of,  quoted, 
201 ;  defends  Deane,  202  / 

Ge~rard,  Secretary  of  Foreign  * 
Affairs,  53;  Deane  meets, 
114;  writes  Vergennes,  116; 
champion  for  Franklin,  123; 
French  Minister  to  America, 
133;  met  by  delegation,  133; 
writes  Vergennes,  143;  de 
fends  Deane,  146;  describes 
R.  H.  Lee,  151 ;  129,  143,  156, 
158,  161 

Germany,  Lee  travels  in,  97; 

84.  145 
Gerry,  262 
Ghent,  Deane  in,  181,  195,213; 

193,  217,  262 
Gibraltar,  trade  with,  n 
Glynn,  117 
Grand,  Frederick,  gives  Deane 

accounts,  114;  Deane  writes 

of  illness  to,  203;  104,  223 


Index 


281 


Gravesend,  Deane's  death  at, 

252; 257 

Great  Britain,  186 
Great  River,  thoroughfare  for 

shipping,  ii 
Green    Mountain    Boys    and 

Col.  Ethan  Allen,  29 
Groton,  Silas  Deane  from,  3 

Hamburg,  H6tel  de,  Franklin 

lodges  at,  95 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  examines 

Beaumarchais'  claims,  71 
Hancock,  John,  Deane  writes, 

135;  National  party,  142;  129 
Harris,  Sir  Robert,  218 
Harrison,  130 
Hartford,     and    Wethersfield, 

3;    weekly    paper    from,    5; 

views  on  the  Revolution,  13; 

delegates  from,  14;  Ingersoll 

starts  for,  15;  248 
Havana,  2 

Havre  de  Grace,  88,  119 
Henry     of     Prussia,     Prince, 

Steuben  carries  letters  from, 

84 
Hill's  Tavern,  Deane  puts  up 

at,  22 

Holdimand,  Governor  of  Que 
bec,  244 
Holker,  Deane  negotiates  with, 

102;  Lee  writes  of,  122;  119 
Holland,  Deane  advised  to  go 

to,  48;  Lee  travels  in,  97; 

Lee  seeks  help  from,    102; 

will    not   lend  money,   177; 

108,  131,  139,  172,  256 
Hooker,    Thomas,    theory    of 

government,  13 
Hopkins,  General,  of  Maryland, 

86 
Horse  Guard  of  Connecticut, 

the  governor's,  91 
Hortalez    &    Co.       See  Rode- 

rique,  Hortalez  &  Co. 
Hosmer,  a  member  of  Congress, 

137;  explanation  of,  149;  235 
Howe,  Lord,  Franklin  writes, 

228 


Howe,  Gen.,  103 

Independent  Empire,  46 
Ingersoll,  Jared,  stamp-master 
14;  resigns  as  stamp-master, 
16 

"Intercepted  Letters,"  publi 
cation  and  scandal  of,  182, 
225 

Ireland,    New   England    trade 
with,  ii ;   flaxseed  from,  186 
Irwin,  assists  Deane,  245;  247 
Isham,  Charles,  defends  Deane, 

2OI 

Izard,  Ralph,  friend  of  Lee, 
121 ;  Lee  writes  of,  131; 
letters  from,  136;  Deane 
answers  charges  of,  137;  is 
recalled,  144;  writes  of 
Deane,  238;  96,  142,  156, 
175,  235,  240 

Jay,  John,  on  committee  to 
send  letter  to  Canada,  30; 
sends  Deane  to  France,  41, 
42;  writes  Beaumarchais,  69; 
Deane  writes  to,  88,  167, 
168,  174,  177,  180,  194,  207, 
211,  212,  230,  251;  Morris 
writes  to,  160;  writes  Deane, 
1 68,  173,  209;  Livingston 
writes  of  Deane  to,  196; 
Deane  misses  seeing,  221; 
correspondence  with  Deane, 
229;  chosen  president  of 
Congress,  241;  opinion  of 
Deane,  259;  31,  35,  130,  184, 
265 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  writes  of 
Vergennes,  58;  declines  to 
go  to  France,  89;  National 
party,  142;  no  longer  mem 
ber  of  Congress,  189;  30,  92 

Jennings,  Mr.,  Lee  writes  of, 
131 

Jerome  of  Prague,  referred  to, 
268 

John  the  Baptist,  referred  to, 
267 

Johnson,  Joshua,  172,  262 


282 


Index 


Johnson,    William    S.,    Deane 

writes,  252 
Jones,    Paul,    Captain   of   the 

Ranger,  in;   Deane  writes, 

171 
Jones,  Sir  William,  117 


Knox,  confers  with  De  Grasse, 
Ka'lb?  see  De  Kalb 


Lafayette,  in  command  of 
French  soldiers,  39;  De  Kalb 
embarks  with,  83;  commis 
sioned  by  Deane,  84;  91,  134, 

193 

Lafayette,  Madame  de,  com 
missioners  call  on,  114 

Langdon,  John,  accusations  by 
Lee  against,  99;  115 

Laurens,  Henry,  friend  of  Lee, 
12 1 ;  president  of  Congress, 
135.  T55;  enemy  of  Deane, 
156;  writes  to  Livingston, 
231;  accuses  Deane,  234;  in 
conspiracy  against  Deane, 
235;  Deane  answers  charges 
of,  235-240 

L'Orient,  vessels  sailing  from, 
captured  by  British,  182 

Le  Ray,  M.,  Deane  has  letter 
to,  44 

Ledlie,  Mr.,  Deane  writes  of, 
24 

Lee,  Mr.  Arthur,  agent  of  the 
colonies  in  London,  49;  a  law 
student,  55;  writes  the  Secret 
Committee,  56;  Beaumar- 
chais  writes,  56;  schemes  of, 
59;  plays  part  of  lago,  63; 
lies  of,  65;  keeps  lying  to 
Congress,  67;  appointed 
commissioner,  89 ;  arrives 
in  Paris,  89;  Deane's  work 
with,  89;  arrives  in  Passy, 
97;  nominated  Franklin's 
successor,  98;  writes  false 
charges  against  Franklin, 
98;  writes  his  brothers  and 
Adams,  98;  Deane  writes  of, 


106;  treachery  of,  107;  cor 
respondence  with  Congress 
of,  107;  as  traitor,  107;  pre 
sented  to  Louis  XVI,  113; 
accounts  given  to,  114;  and 
Beaumarchais,  115;  disap 
pointment  of,  115;  attacks 
Franklin  and  Deane,  115; 
temperament  of,  116  ff.; 
comes  to  Paris,  118;  joins 
Deane,  118;  consulted  about 
contracts,  119;  criticism  of 
Deane  by,  119;  jealousy  of, 
120;  selfishness  of,  121; 
charges  against  Deane  by, 
121  ff. ;  Beaumarchais  writes 
of,  125;  writes  brother,  131, 
134;  letters  of,  136;  Deane 
answers  charges  of,  137; 
Adams  friendly  to,  143; 
Gerard  writes  of,  143;  is  re 
called,  144;  Deane  writes  of, 
145  ff.;  Franklin  writes  to, 
154;  Nicholson  writes  of, 
156;  schemes  of,  132;  Deane 
writes  of,  167;  Jones  suffers 
from,  171;  accounts  of,  177; 
Deane  accuses,  222;  letter 
from,  241;  62,  75,  92,  102, 
112,  120,  130,  139,  142,  151, 
160,  165,  235,  262,  264,  265 
Lee,  Richard  Henry,  brother 
to  Arthur,  97,  121;  Arthur 
writes  to,  121,  131;  146, 

I5i 

Lee,  William,  the  Alderman, 
131;  is  recalled,  144;  Deane 
writes  of,  145;  letter  to 
Samuel  Thorpe,  206;  235 

Leibnitz,  Franklin  compared 
with,  96 

Lewis,  236 

Lexington,  battle  of ,  38 

Lisbon,  slave  markets  in,  4; 
trade  with,  n 

Livingston,  R.  R.,  National 
party,  142;  writes  Jay  of 
Deane,  196;  Franklin  writes 
of  Deane  to,  203;  Laurens 
writes  to,  231 ;  236 


Index 


283 


London,  Deane  in,  215;  Deane 

confined  in,  248 
Long  Wharf,  in  Boston,  no 
Louis  XVI,  recognizes  Repub 
lic,  112;   commissioners  pre 
sented  to,  113;  45,  56,  57, 

T  2^5u 
Louisburg,  2 

Lovell,  James,  Franklin  writes 
to,  76;  recalls  Deane,  108; 
letter  from,  114;  writes  to 
Franklin,  130,  150 

Luther,  referred  to,  267,  268 

Madison,  James,  writes  of 
Vergennes,  58;  National  par 
ty,  142 

Madrid,  French  ambassador 
at,  60;  Court  of,  156;  131 

March,  Rev.  John,  8 

Marine  Committee,  261 

Marseilles,  141 

Martinico,  149 

Martinique,  165 

Maryland,  63 

Mason,  no  longer  member  of 
Congress,  189 

Massachusetts,  tries  to  drop 
importation  of  goods,  16; 
Franklin  agent  for,  97;  26 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  13 

Massachusetts  Council,  no 

Maurepas,  head  of  the  Cabinet, 

57 

Maurepas,  Count,  51 
Maurice,  236 
May,  Deacon,  5 
McFingal,  by  John  Trumbull, 

McHenry,  262 

Mercure,  The,  carries  arms,  90; 

226 

Mercury,  The,  fate  of,  149 
Middletown,  Col.  Parsons  of, 

28 

Middletown,  I 
Mill    Brook,    first     grist    mill 

built  in,  6 

Minister  of  the  Court,  76 
Mohawks,  2 


Montheu,  Lee  writes  of,  122; 
119 

Morris,  Robert,  member  of 
Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  30;  Washington 
writes  to,  40;  sends  Deane 
to  France,  41,  42;  letters  to, 
from  Deane,  61,  80,  84,  85, 
88,  177,  191 ;  letters  to  Deane 
from,  89,  165,  176,  241;  Na 
tional  party,  142;  defends 
Deane,  148;  writes  of  Deane, 
1 60,  161;  writes  to  Deane, 
162;  writes  Franklin,  162; 
Deane's  letter  to,  183; 
Franklin  writes  of  Deane  to, 
204;  Beaumarchais  writes  of 
Deane  to,  205;  Superintend 
ent  of  Finances,  216;  opinion 
of  Deane,  259;  30,  35,  130, 
138,  184,  236,  263,  265,  268 

Morris,  Thomas,  brother  of 
Robert,  88 

Nantes,  Austin  leaves,  no; 
64,  88,  106,  119,  141,  145, 

175 

National  party,  142 

Naval  Committee,  sends  Deane 

to  New  York,  36 
Navigation  Act,  184,  219,  228 
Netherlands,  Deane  starts  for, 

177 
New  Hampshire,  ships  reach, 

90 
New  Haven,  Jared  Ingersoll  of, 

14;  opposition  to  Stamp  Act 

in,  15 
New    London,    opposition    to 

Stamp  Act  in,  15;  Deane  to 

go  to,  36 
New    Materials    on    American 

War,  by  Durand,  107 
New  York,  coach  from  Boston, 

to,  5;  hats  sold  in,  8;  trade 

with,  n;  Deane  arrives  in, 

22,  in  hands  of  British,  105; 

Deane's     letters     published 

in,  195;  91 
Newfoundland,  186 


284 


Index 


Newport,    merchants    against 

Connecticut,  18;  in  hands  of 

British,  105; 
Newton,  Franklin  compared  to, 

96 
Nicholas,   no   longer   member 

of  Congress,  189 
Nicholson,  Mr.  S.,  writes  Car- 

michael,  156 
North,  Lord,  writes  of  Deane, 

200;  55,  108,  217 
Nova  Scotia,  186 

Oldham,  John,  goes  to  Py- 
quag,  I 

Packet,  Philadelphia,  Deane 
writes  in,  144;  Paine  writes 
in,  148 

Paine,  Thomas,  Deane  debates 
with,  31;  friend  of  Lee,  121; 
Secretary  of  Committee,  148 ; 
answers  Morris,  148;  Deane 
answers,  148;  attacks  Deane, 
150;  uses  letters  against 
Deane,  202;  151,  156,  175 

Paris,  Deane  arrives  in,  44; 
Steuben  visits,  84;  Lee  ar 
rives  in,  89;  Franklin  in,  93; 
Deane  in,  166,  176;  Deane's 
fruitless  year  in,  178;  Deane 
longs  to  go  to,  208;  73 

"Paris  Letters,"  see  "Inter 
cepted  Letters" 

Parliament,  complaints  against, 
20;  107 

Parsons,  General  S.  H.,  Deane 
writes,  28,  188,  191 

Parton,  writes  of  Franklin,  94 

Passy,  Franklin  lives  in,  95; 
treaty  signed  at,  107;  Austin 
goes  to,  no;  67,  93 

Pendleton,  no  longer  member 
of  Congress,  189 

Pennsylvania,  hostilities  of 
Virginia  and,  190 

Pequots,  2 

Perch,  sailing  of,  110 

Philadelphia,  Continental  Con 
gress  held  in,  20;  in  hands 


of  the  British,  105;  Deane 
reaches,  133;  Deane's  long 
wait  in,  140;  28,  115,  224 

Philadelphia  Packet,  see  Packet 

Plato,  94 

Portland,  Duke  of,  218 

Portugal,  47,  186 

Portsmouth,  ships  reach,  90; 
John  Langdon  of,  100;  Am- 
phitrite  arrives  at,  101 ;  car 
goes  reach  safely,  108;  91, 
130,  226 

Prague,  Jerome  of,  referred  to, 
268 

Priestly,  Dr.,  234,  257 

Prussia,  120 

Putnam,  Gen.  Israel,  Deane 
writes  of,  34;  deplores  the 
Revolution,  268 

Pulaski,  91,  134 

Pyquag,  Oldham  goes  to,  i 

Pyrenees,  Deane  goes  over  the, 
44 

Quebec,  governors  of,  244;  2 

Randolph,  president  of  Con 
gress,  27 

Rayneval,  G6rard  de,  see 
Ge"rard 

Reed,  Joseph,  accusation  by 
Lee  against,  99;  115 

Republic,  its  debt  to  Deane, 
265 

Revolution,  The,  265 

Rivingtons,  The,  Deane's  let 
ters  published  by,  183;  196 

Robbins,  Jonathan,  Capt.  buys 
shoes,  7 

Rochambeaux,  confers  with 
De  Grasse,  193;  193 

Rochford,  Lord,  sent  to  count 
eract  Deane,  50 

Roderique,  Hortalez  &  Co., 
Deane  to  do  business  with, 
53;  forming  of,  61 ;  straits  of, 
66;  Deane  does  business 
with,  73;  64,  100,  126,  128 

Rodney,  180 


Index 


285 


Root,  Jesse,  Deane  writes  to, 

190 
Royal    Gazette,    The,    Deane's 

letters  in,  183,  196;  262 
Ruffec,   De  Broglie's    country 

seat,  83 

Russell,  Mr.,  234 
Russia,  139,  186 

St.  Denis,  Beaumarchais  born 

in.  54 

St.  Domingo,  56,  226 
St.  Francis,  57 
St.   George's  churchyard  and 

Deane's  grave  in,  253 
St.    Lawrence,    Deane's    plan 

for,  244 
Sabatier,   Lee  writes  of,    122; 

Deane  unable  to  settle  with, 

177 

Safety,  Committee  of,  39 
Saltonstall,  Elizabeth,  second 

wife  of  S.  Deane,  3 
Saltonstall,  Gurdon,  109 
Saratoga,    Burgoyne's   surren 
der   at,   39,   90,    no;    130, 

226 

Savannah,  blacks  for,  5;  38 
Savonarola,  referred  to,  268 
Saybrook  Bar,  buoys  erected 

in,  19 
Schuyler,  Col.,  Deane    writes 

of,  33;  29 
Schuylkill,  Deane  rides  to,  33; 

Coudray    drowned    in    the, 

78 

Scotland,  88 
Scylla,  189 
Searles,  174 
Sebor,  Jacob  B.,  Deane  writes 

to,  196 
Secrecy,  Committee  of,  Deane 

a  member  of,  29 
Secret  Correspondence,  Com 
mittee   of,   forming   of,   41; 

letter   from,    45;    does    not 

reply  to  Beaumarchais,  62; 

Deane  writes  to,  84;  Deane 

writes  for   word  from,   86; 

Deane  writes  for  shipments, 


87;  Deane  writes  of  ship 
ments,  88;  Deane  agent  for, 
92;  behind  Deane,  117;  138, 
178 

Secretary  to  the  King,  Beau 
marchais  buys  office  of,  54 

Seine,  The,  149 

Seven  Years'  War,  57,  8 1 

Shelbourne,  Lee  writes  to,  107; 

145, 212 

Sherman,  Judge  Roger,  a  dele 
gate  for  Connecticut,  21; 
joins  Deane  and  Dyer,  22; 
description  by  Deane  of, 
23;  elected  to  second  Con 
gress,  28;  Deane  debates 
with,  31 

Soheag,  Indian  chieftain,  I 

Sons  of  Liberty,  14 

South  Carolina,  delegates 
from,  23 

Spain,  Deane  lands  in,  43;  Lee 
seeks  help  from,  102;  Court 
of,  131;  unfriendly  to  Amer 
ica,  177;  47,  145,  172,  186, 
191 

Spanish  King,  promises  money 
to  America,  60 

Sparks,  referred  to,  58;  writes 
of  Lee,  63;  referred  to,  97 

Stamp  Act,  opposition  to,  14 

States  Rights  party,  142 

Steuben,  Baron,  commissioned 
by  Deane,  84;  91,  134 

Stormont,  British  ambassador 
to  France,  93;  leaves  for 
London,  113 

Strassburg,  119,  141 

Suffield,  Lord,  author  of  a 
pamphlet,  218;  Deane  writes 
to,  245;  231 

Sumner,  Prof.  W.  G.,  referred 
to,  161 

Superintendent  of  Finance, 
Morris  made,  177 

Susquehanna  claims,  settle 
ment  of,  19 

Sweden,  186 

Sydney,  Lord,  approves 
Deane's  plans,  249;  245,  247 


286 


Index 


Tallmadge,   Benjamin,   Deane 

writes    to,    181,    191,    195; 

writes  Deane,  203 
Temple,  The,  Lee  studies  law 

in,  97 
Theodosius,     etc.,     by     Rev. 

Philip  Withers,  256 
Thomson,      Charles,      Deane 

writes,  188 
Thorpe,  Samuel  W.,  Lee  writes 

to,  206 
Ticonteroga,  Fort,  capture  of, 

28;  money  raised  for  taking 

of  fort,  28;  2 
Tories,  266 
Toulon,  113,  115 
Townsend,    J.    T.,    Bancroft 

writes,  247;  212 
Treat,    Parson,    Deane   writes 

of,  24 

Trent  Town,  Deane  in,  25 
Trumbull,  J.  H.,  28;  letter  to 

Deane  from,  35;  author  of 

McFingal,  199 
Trumbull,      Gov.      Jonathan, 

Deane   writes   to,   21,    195; 

27 
Turgot,    French    Minister    of 

Finance,  57 

United    States,    Deane    sends 
address  to,  221 

Valfort,  M.  de,  83 
Valley  Forge,  soldiers  in,  189 
Vergennes,  M.,  Minister  of 
French  Affairs,  49;  adopts 
cause  of  America,  57 ;  reasons 
for  helping  colonies,  58 ;  backs 
Beaumarchais,  61 ;  Deane 
applies  to,  61;  committee 
writes  to,  68 ;  Deane  and,  73 ; 
commissioners  call  on,  100; 
Deane  tries  to  see,  103;  anx 
ious  for  treaty,  1 1 1 ;  Deane 
calls  on,  112;  presents  com 
missioners,  113;  commission 
ers  dine  with,  114;  Gerard 
writes,  116;  Deane  writes 
to,  118;  writes  Deane,  129; 


Gerard  writes  to,  143;  56,  65, 

91,   134,  156,  175,   184,  222 

Versailles,  Austin  goes  to,  no; 

Deane   acceptable   at,    120; 

Court  of,  156;  49,  54,  94,  139 
Vienna,    Court    of,    131,    145; 

239 
Ville    de    Paris,    De    Grasse's 

flagship,  194 
Virginia,  delegates  from,  please 

Deane,     25;     hostilities     of 

Pennsylvania  and,  190;  62, 

63,  115,  229 
Voltaire  compared  with,  96 

Wads  worth,  Jeremiah,  Deane 
writes,  187,  250;  writes 
Deane,  196 

Wartburg,  Luther  in,  268 

Washington,  George,  buys 
boots  in  Wethersfield,  7; 
Deane  writes  of,  27,  32; 
writes  Morris,  40;  De  Kalb 
tries  to  replace,  82;  National 
party,  142;  confers  with  De 
Grasse,  193;  Deane  writes, 
251;  26,  27,  29,  30,  31,  35, 
80,  83,  161,  188,  189,  193, 
227,  229,  267,  270 

Watertown,  Oldham  leads  ad 
venturers  from,  i 

Watson,  Ebenezer,  of  the 
Courant,  29 

Watson,  Elkanah,  interview 
with  Deane,  198;  writes 
opinion  of  Deane,  198,  199 

Ways  and  Means,  Committee 
of,  Deane  a  member  of,  30 

Webb,  David,  appointed  to 
prevent  importation,  17 

Webb,  Joseph,  Deane  writes 
to,  164 

Webb,  Mehitabel,  marries 
Silas  Deane,  3 

Webb,  Samuel  B.,  stepson  of 
Deane,  22;  on  Washington's 
staff,  22;  Deane  writes,  244 

Wedderburn,  sent  to  counter 
act  Deane,  51 

West  India  Islands,  French,  86 


Index 


287 


West  Indies,  blacks  for,  5;  pipe 
staves  shipped  to,  7;  trade 
with,  n;  26,  221,  228,  229 

Wethersfield,  the  settling  of ,  I ; 
first  century  of,  2;  Silas 
Deane  comes  to,  2;  popula 
tion  of,  3,  4;  slaves  in,  4;  life 
in,  5;  first  grist  mill  in, 6;  tan 
neries  in,  6;  industries  of, 
6  ff.;  crops  in,  8;  distilleries 
in,  9 ;  fruit  in,  9 ;  views  on  the 
Revolution,  13;  delegates  of, 
14;  Ingersoll's  visit  to,  15; 
people  show  opposition  to 
King  George,  16;  meeting 
held  in,  17;  people  of,  sympa 
thize  with  Boston,  18;  pride 
in  Deane  of,  21;  death  of 
Mrs.  Deane  in,  109;  25 

Wilkinson,  assists  Deane,  245 

Williams,  Elias,  appointed  to 
prevent  importation,  17 

Williams,  Elisha,  appointed  to 
prevent  importation,  1714 

Williams,  Ephraim,  account 
book  of,  6 


Williams,    Ezekiel,    appointed 

to  prevent  importation,  17 
Williams,  Israel,  Col.,  6 
Williams,  Jonathan,  letter  of, 

175 

Wilson,  James,   Deane  writes 

to,  180,  194,  216 
Wilton,  James,  Deane  writes, 

190 
Windham,  opposition  to  Stamp 

Act  in,  15 

Windsor,  views  on  the  Revolu 
tion,  13;  delegates  of,  14 
Winthrop,    referred    to,    I,    2; 

reaction  against,  13 
Withers,  Rev.  Philip,  supposed 

author    of    Theodosius,    etc. 

256 

Wyllys,  Col.  Samuel,  28 
Wythe,  no  longer  member  of 

Congress,  189 

Yorktown,  surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis  at,  39;  De  Grasse  at, 
191;  Washington  in  com 
mand  at,  193;  268 


14  DAY  USE 

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